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 3847

District of Winton Quarter ending 31 December 1920 Registrar Am Herd

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

4 October 1920

Percival Miller Callender
Marjorie Sutton

Percival Miller Callender
Marjorie Sutton
💍 1920/9902

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

32 years
25

Centrebush
Centrebush

5 days
12 years

Anglican Church, Winton

12068

7 October 1920

Rev. H. Parata, Anglican

No	23
Date of Notice	4 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival Miller Callender	Marjorie Sutton
	💍 1920/9902
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	32 years	25
Dwelling Place	Centrebush	Centrebush
Length of Residence	5 days	12 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Winton
Folio	12068
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Parata, Anglican

9 October 1920

Charles Frederick Nixon
Ethel May Cook

Charles Frederick Nixon
Ethel May Cook
💍 1920/9833

Bachelor
Spinster

Boot Importer
Domestic Duties

33 years
29

Winton
Invercargill

2 months
5 days

Presbyterian Church, Invercargill

11998

9 October 1920

Rev. C. Gardiner, Presbyterian

No	24
Date of Notice	9 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frederick Nixon	Ethel May Cook
	💍 1920/9833
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boot Importer	Domestic Duties
Age	33 years	29
Dwelling Place	Winton	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 months	5 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Invercargill
Folio	11998
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Gardiner, Presbyterian

15 October 1920

John Henry Truby
Sophia Kidd

John Henry Frisley
Sophia Kidd
💍 1920/9903

Bachelor
Spinster

Brickmaker
Cook

33 years
20 years

Browns
Browns

30 years
10 years

Anglican Church, Winton

12069

Charles Cowan Kidd, Father

15 October 1920

Rev. T. J. Smyth, Anglican

No	25
Date of Notice	15 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Truby	Sophia Kidd
BDM Match (86%)	John Henry Frisley	Sophia Kidd
	💍 1920/9903
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Brickmaker	Cook
Age	33 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Browns	Browns
Length of Residence	30 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Winton
Folio	12069
Consent	Charles Cowan Kidd, Father
Date of Certificate	15 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. J. Smyth, Anglican

19 October 1920

Colin Alexander McDonald
Euphemia Isabel Wilson

Colin Alexander McDonald
Euphemia Isobel Wilson
💍 1920/9905

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24 years
21 years

Winton
Hokonui

3 days
21 years

Dwellinghouse of John Wilson, Hokonui

12070

19 October 1920

Rev. A. K. Ross, Presbyterian

No	26
Date of Notice	19 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Colin Alexander McDonald	Euphemia Isabel Wilson
BDM Match (98%)	Colin Alexander McDonald	Euphemia Isobel Wilson
	💍 1920/9905
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Winton	Hokonui
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	Dwellinghouse of John Wilson, Hokonui
Folio	12070
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. K. Ross, Presbyterian

25 October 1920

Francis Ledingham McFarlane
Bessie Reid King

Francis Ledingham McFarlane
Bessie Reid King
💍 1920/9906

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist
Domestic Duties

34 years
27 years

Winton
Winton

5 days
27 years

Presbyterian Church, Winton

12071

25 October 1920

Rev. A. McNeur, Presbyterian

No	27
Date of Notice	25 October 1920
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Ledingham McFarlane	Bessie Reid King
	💍 1920/9906
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist	Domestic Duties
Age	34 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Winton	Winton
Length of Residence	5 days	27 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Winton
Folio	12071
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 October 1920
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. McNeur, 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).