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 3717

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1920 Registrar J. McKittrick

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

27 January 1920

Charles William Ramsay
Agnes Marjory Voigt

Charles William Ramsay
Agnes Marjory Voigt
💍 1920/7969

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic duties

28
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

8 months
3 days

Registrar's Office, Invercargill

3032

Mary Frances Voigt (mother)

27 January 1920

J. McKittrick, Deputy Registrar

No	21
Date of Notice	27 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles William Ramsay	Agnes Marjory Voigt
	💍 1920/7969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic duties
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Invercargill
Folio	3032
Consent	Mary Frances Voigt (mother)
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	J. McKittrick, Deputy Registrar

27 January 1920

Arthur George Diack
Lily Balfour Fraser

Arthur George Diack
Lily Balfour Fraser
💍 1920/7970

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
School-teacher

25
22

Lochiel
Invercargill

12 months
Lifetime

Presbyterian Church, Dee street, Invercargill

3033

27 January 1920

Rev. J. Collie, Presbyterian

No	22
Date of Notice	27 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Diack	Lily Balfour Fraser
	💍 1920/7970
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	School-teacher
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Lochiel	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 months	Lifetime
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Dee street, Invercargill
Folio	3033
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Collie, Presbyterian

28 January 1920

Donald Haldane
Catherine O'Brien

Donald Haldane
Catherine O'Brien
💍 1920/7971

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Cook

24
27

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

Roman Catholic Church, Tyne street, Invercargill

3034

28 January 1920

Rev. P. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

No	23
Date of Notice	28 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Haldane	Catherine O'Brien
	💍 1920/7971
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Cook
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Tyne street, Invercargill
Folio	3034
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic

28 January 1920

Robert Andrew Dickie
Margaret Isabel Marshall

Robert Andrew Dickie
Margaret Isabel Marshall
💍 1920/7949

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Lady's Companion

32
22

Mabel Bush
Mabel Bush

3 days
4 days

Presbyterian Church, Mabel Bush

3035

28 January 1920

Mr. G. Wallace, Presbyterian

No	24
Date of Notice	28 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Andrew Dickie	Margaret Isabel Marshall
	💍 1920/7949
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Lady's Companion
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Mabel Bush	Mabel Bush
Length of Residence	3 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Mabel Bush
Folio	3035
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Mr. G. Wallace, Presbyterian

29 January 1920

Thomas Hudson Young
Margaret Ethel Garden

Thomas Hudson Young
Margaret Ethel Garden
💍 1920/7950

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic duties

34
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Tay street, Invercargill

3036

29 January 1920

Rev. J. E. Lopdell, Presbyterian

No	25
Date of Notice	29 January 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hudson Young	Margaret Ethel Garden
	💍 1920/7950
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic duties
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Tay street, Invercargill
Folio	3036
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Lopdell, Presbyterian

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).