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 3398

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar C. R. Howell

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

707

27 October 1920

John Henry Clarence Victor McGrath
Violet Minnie Clark

John Henry Clarence Victor McGrath
Violet Minnie Clark
💍 1920/10276

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
19 years

St Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

9628

Jane Clark (Mother)

27 October 1920

B. Kaveney Roman Catholic

No	707
Date of Notice	27 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Clarence Victor McGrath	Violet Minnie Clark
	💍 1920/10276
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	9628
Consent	Jane Clark (Mother)
Date of Certificate	27 October 1920
Officiating Minister	B. Kaveney Roman Catholic

708

28 October 1920

David Alexander Marr
Ruby Naomi Wakelin

David Alexander Marr
Ruby Naomi Wakelin
💍 1920/10277

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

24
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
24 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin

9629

28 October 1920

B. F. Rothwell Methodist

No	708
Date of Notice	28 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Alexander Marr	Ruby Naomi Wakelin
	💍 1920/10277
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin
Folio	9629
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1920
Officiating Minister	B. F. Rothwell Methodist

709

28 October 1920

James Beattie Black
Mary Harris

James Beattie Black
Mary Harris
💍 1920/10278

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
23

Broad Bay
North East Harbour

20 years
3 years

First Church, Dunedin

9630

28 October 1920

G. Macdonald Presbyterian

No	709
Date of Notice	28 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Beattie Black	Mary Harris
	💍 1920/10278
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Broad Bay	North East Harbour
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	9630
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1920
Officiating Minister	G. Macdonald Presbyterian

710

28 October 1920

Alexander David Macartney
Margaret Bernadette Macdonald

Alexander David Macartney
Margaret Bernardette Macdonald
💍 1920/10279

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 months
5 weeks

Residence of Mr George D. Macartney, 27 Mailer Street, Dunedin

9631

28 October 1920

R. Robertson Baptist

No	710
Date of Notice	28 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander David Macartney	Margaret Bernadette Macdonald
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander David Macartney	Margaret Bernardette Macdonald
	💍 1920/10279
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 months	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr George D. Macartney, 27 Mailer Street, Dunedin
Folio	9631
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1920
Officiating Minister	R. Robertson Baptist

711

28 October 1920

Henry Elliott Mackay
Florence Addison Bain

Henry Elliott Mackay
Florence Addison Bain
💍 1920/10280

Widower 5-9-1915
Spinster

Moulder

58
31

Dunedin
Dunedin

34 years
8 days

Presbyterian Church, Caversham

9632

28 October 1920

J. Miller Presbyterian

No	711
Date of Notice	28 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Elliott Mackay	Florence Addison Bain
	💍 1920/10280
Condition	Widower 5-9-1915	Spinster
Profession	Moulder
Age	58	31
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	34 years	8 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Caversham
Folio	9632
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1920
Officiating Minister	J. Miller Presbyterian

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).