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 3297

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar C. A. Schmidt

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

221

29 March 1920

Ralph Valentine Kirkham
Marjory Cunningham Mitchell

Ralph Valentine Kirkham
Marjory Cunningham Mitchell
💍 1920/12516

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm manager

29
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
21 years

Presbyterian church North East Valley Dunedin

2041

29 March 1920

R E Evans, Presbyterian

No	221
Date of Notice	29 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Valentine Kirkham	Marjory Cunningham Mitchell
	💍 1920/12516
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm manager
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian church North East Valley Dunedin
Folio	2041
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 March 1920
Officiating Minister	R E Evans, Presbyterian

222

30 March 1920

Frederick William Walter Randall
Mary Jane Carson

Frederick William Walter Randall
Mary Jane Carson
💍 1920/5089

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

26
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
9 months

Residence of Mrs J Carson 8 Hall Street South Dunedin

2042

30 March 1920

H E Every, Baptist

No	222
Date of Notice	30 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Walter Randall	Mary Jane Carson
	💍 1920/5089
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	26	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs J Carson 8 Hall Street South Dunedin
Folio	2042
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1920
Officiating Minister	H E Every, Baptist

223

30 March 1920

Claude Hamilton Clarke
Susan Niblock Shore Johnston

Claude Hamilton Clarke
Susan Niblock Shore Johnston
💍 1920/5090

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

29
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
2 years

Presbyterian manse South Dunedin

2043

30 March 1920

R Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	223
Date of Notice	30 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Hamilton Clarke	Susan Niblock Shore Johnston
	💍 1920/5090
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian manse South Dunedin
Folio	2043
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1920
Officiating Minister	R Fairmaid, Presbyterian

224

30 March 1920

Sydney Alexander Thompson
Irene Louise Erridge

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

25
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 months
18 years

House of Mrs H R Erridge 27 Norwood Street Normanby Dunedin

Helen Ramage Erridge (Mother)

30 March 1920

E A Axelsen, Presbyterian

No	224
Date of Notice	30 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Alexander Thompson	Irene Louise Erridge
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 months	18 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs H R Erridge 27 Norwood Street Normanby Dunedin
Folio
Consent	Helen Ramage Erridge (Mother)
Date of Certificate	30 March 1920
Officiating Minister	E A Axelsen, Presbyterian

225

30 March 1920

Alexander McIntosh
Myrtle Florence Lord

Alexander McIntosh
Myrtle Florence Lord
💍 1920/5091

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

29
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 weeks

Congregational Church Moray Place Dunedin

2044

30 March 1920

W Saunders, Congregational Independent

No	225
Date of Notice	30 March 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander McIntosh	Myrtle Florence Lord
	💍 1920/5091
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Congregational Church Moray Place Dunedin
Folio	2044
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 March 1920
Officiating Minister	W Saunders, Congregational Independent

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).