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 3268

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar A. B. Kennedy

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

3 February 1920

Edward Tobin
Christina Louisa Mary Beaton

Edward Tobin
Christina Louisa Mary Beaton
💍 1920/3537

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

26
25

St. Kilda
Dunedin

16 years

House of Mrs C. Beaton 408 Cumberland St Dunedin

1905

3 February 1920

D. Dutton, Presbyterian

No	44
Date of Notice	3 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Tobin	Christina Louisa Mary Beaton
	💍 1920/3537
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	St. Kilda	Dunedin
Length of Residence	16 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs C. Beaton 408 Cumberland St Dunedin
Folio	1905
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1920
Officiating Minister	D. Dutton, Presbyterian

3 February 1920

Sydney Back Smith
Florence Ida Almond

Sydney Bach Smith
Florence Ida Cramond
💍 1920/3536

Bachelor
Spinster

Draughtsman

41
34

Dunedin
Dunedin

15 years
34 years

All Saints Church Dunedin

1904

3 February 1920

G. N. Lisle, Church of England

No	46
Date of Notice	3 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Back Smith	Florence Ida Almond
BDM Match (90%)	Sydney Bach Smith	Florence Ida Cramond
	💍 1920/3536
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draughtsman
Age	41	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	15 years	34 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church Dunedin
Folio	1904
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1920
Officiating Minister	G. N. Lisle, Church of England

3 February 1920

Albert Theodore Poulter
Jeannie Brown Garside

Albert Theadore Poulter
Jeannie Brown Garside
💍 1920/3538

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
21 years

Registrar's Office Dunedin

1906

3 February 1920

A. B. Kennedy, Registrar

No	48
Date of Notice	3 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Theodore Poulter	Jeannie Brown Garside
BDM Match (98%)	Albert Theadore Poulter	Jeannie Brown Garside
	💍 1920/3538
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Dunedin
Folio	1906
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1920
Officiating Minister	A. B. Kennedy, Registrar

3 February 1920

James Douglas
Isabell Casey

James Douglas
Isabell Cassey
💍 1920/3539

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

Rata Tea Rooms 87 Stuart St Dunedin

1907

3 February 1920

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	49
Date of Notice	3 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Douglas	Isabell Casey
BDM Match (96%)	James Douglas	Isabell Cassey
	💍 1920/3539
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Rata Tea Rooms 87 Stuart St Dunedin
Folio	1907
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1920
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

4 February 1920

Robert Duke Hayward
Annie Mellie

Robert Duke Hayward
Annie McVie
💍 1920/3540

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

20
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Dunedin

1908

Lydia Jane Hayward (mother); Mary Roberts (mother)

4 February 1920

A. B. Kennedy, Registrar

No	50
Date of Notice	4 February 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Duke Hayward	Annie Mellie
BDM Match (88%)	Robert Duke Hayward	Annie McVie
	💍 1920/3540
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Dunedin
Folio	1908
Consent	Lydia Jane Hayward (mother); Mary Roberts (mother)
Date of Certificate	4 February 1920
Officiating Minister	A. B. Kennedy, Registrar

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).