Intentions to Marry, 1920 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840494, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1920 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1920g contains pages 2957-3440, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 3271

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar W. J. Connell

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

6 February 1920

Leonard James Jenkins
Ada Olive Thompson

Leonard James Jenkins
Ada Olive Thompson
💍 1920/3528

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

24
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
24 years South Dunedin

Presbyterian Church South Dunedin

1919

6 February 1920

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	91
Date of Notice	6 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard James Jenkins	Ada Olive Thompson
	💍 1920/3528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	24 years South Dunedin
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church South Dunedin
Folio	1919
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1920
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

9 February 1920

Walter Stott Smellie
Lilian Newcastle Freeman

Walter Stott Smellie
Lillian Newcastle Freeman
💍 1920/3529

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
22

Green Island
Abbottsford

6 days
22 years Green Island

St. Marks Church Green Island

1920

9 February 1920

S. J. Cooper, Church of England

No	92
Date of Notice	9 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Stott Smellie	Lilian Newcastle Freeman
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Stott Smellie	Lillian Newcastle Freeman
	💍 1920/3529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Abbottsford
Length of Residence	6 days	22 years Green Island
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church Green Island
Folio	1920
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1920
Officiating Minister	S. J. Cooper, Church of England

9 February 1920

Douglas Somerville Binnie
Florence Lillian Edlin

Douglas Somerville Binnie
Florence Lillian Edlin
💍 1920/3530

Bachelor
Spinster

Piano Tuner

24
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 years 83 Young St. St. Kilda

Presbyterian Manse

1921

Charles Percival Edlin (Father)

9 February 1920

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	93
Date of Notice	9 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Somerville Binnie	Florence Lillian Edlin
	💍 1920/3530
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Piano Tuner
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 years 83 Young St. St. Kilda
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse
Folio	1921
Consent	Charles Percival Edlin (Father)
Date of Certificate	9 February 1920
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

9 February 1920

William Bannerman Lamond
Emily Violet Ley Harrison

William Bannerman Lamond
Emily Violet Fay Harrison
💍 1920/3531

Bachelor
Spinster

Tanner

34
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
29 years

House of Mrs. C. F. Harrison Highgate Maori Hill

1922

9 February 1920

H. H. Barton, Presbyterian

No	94
Date of Notice	9 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bannerman Lamond	Emily Violet Ley Harrison
BDM Match (96%)	William Bannerman Lamond	Emily Violet Fay Harrison
	💍 1920/3531
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tanner
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	29 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. C. F. Harrison Highgate Maori Hill
Folio	1922
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1920
Officiating Minister	H. H. Barton, Presbyterian

9 February 1920

Philip Joseph May
Matilda McAlpine

Philip Joseph May
Matilda McAlpine
💍 1920/3532

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

21
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 months Dunedin

St Matthews Church

1923

9 February 1920

C. J. Bush King, Church of England

No	95
Date of Notice	9 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Joseph May	Matilda McAlpine
	💍 1920/3532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months Dunedin
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church
Folio	1923
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1920
Officiating Minister	C. J. Bush King, Church of England

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).