Intentions to Marry, 1920 Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840495, 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.

1920h contains pages 3441-3864, covering districts from Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Page 3561

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1920 Registrar S. S. Chisholm

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

26 April 1920

Cecil George May
Lilias Edith Haggitt

Cecil George May
Lilias Edith Haggitt
💍 1920/12417

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster
Domestic duties

34
29

Oamaru
Hamilton

3 years
3 days

St. Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton

4788

26 April 1920

Rev. Clive Mortimer Jones, Anglican

No	38
Date of Notice	26 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil George May	Lilias Edith Haggitt
	💍 1920/12417
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster	Domestic duties
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Hamilton
Length of Residence	3 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Anglican Church, Hamilton
Folio	4788
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Clive Mortimer Jones, Anglican

27 April 1920

John Fitzsimmons
Sarah Jane Taylor

John Fitzsimons
Sarah Jane Taylor
💍 1920/6525

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

35
29

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
19 years

Columba Presbyterian Church, Oamaru

6144

27 April 1920

Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

No	39
Date of Notice	27 April 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fitzsimmons	Sarah Jane Taylor
BDM Match (97%)	John Fitzsimons	Sarah Jane Taylor
	💍 1920/6525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	19 years
Marriage Place	Columba Presbyterian Church, Oamaru
Folio	6144
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

7 May 1920

Alexander Smith Morton
Eva St. Clair Macpherson

Alexander Smith Morton
Eva St Clair Macpherson
💍 1920/6526

Bachelor
Spinster

Surgeon
Nurse

26
26

Oamaru
Totara

8 days
20 years

St. Lukes Anglican Church, Oamaru

6145

7 May 1920

Rev. John Delacourt Russell, Anglican

No	40
Date of Notice	7 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Smith Morton	Eva St. Clair Macpherson
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Smith Morton	Eva St Clair Macpherson
	💍 1920/6526
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surgeon	Nurse
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Totara
Length of Residence	8 days	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Lukes Anglican Church, Oamaru
Folio	6145
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Delacourt Russell, Anglican

8 May 1920

Amos Norman Glass
Emma Alice Gertrude Brooker

Amos Norman Glass
Emma Alice Gertrude Brooker
💍 1920/6527

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic duties

33
24

Oamaru
Oamaru

20 years
24 years

St. Lukes Anglican Church, Oamaru

6146

8 May 1920

Rev. John Delacourt Russell, Anglican

No	41
Date of Notice	8 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Amos Norman Glass	Emma Alice Gertrude Brooker
	💍 1920/6527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic duties
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	20 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Lukes Anglican Church, Oamaru
Folio	6146
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Delacourt Russell, Anglican

10 May 1920

Alexander John Forbes
Jane Dumbleton

Alexander John Forbes
Jane Dumbleton
💍 1920/6528

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic duties

34
36

Pukeuri
Pukeuri

10 years
36 years

Residence of Mrs Lucy Dumbleton, Pukeuri

6147

10 May 1920

Rev. David Jamieson, Anglican

No	42
Date of Notice	10 May 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander John Forbes	Jane Dumbleton
	💍 1920/6528
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic duties
Age	34	36
Dwelling Place	Pukeuri	Pukeuri
Length of Residence	10 years	36 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Lucy Dumbleton, Pukeuri
Folio	6147
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 May 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Jamieson, Anglican

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).