Intentions to Marry, 1921 Cust to Dunedin

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840502, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1921 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.

1921g contains pages 2691-3126, covering districts from Cust to Dunedin

Page 2963

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar M. [illegible]

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 January 1921

John Stewart McLean
Margaret Ewen Rennie

John Stewart McLean
Margaret Ewen Rennie
💍 1921/3151

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

45
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 days
4 years

Residence of Mr. W. Rennie, 36 Driver Street, St. Kilda

1269

4 January 1921

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stewart McLean	Margaret Ewen Rennie
	💍 1921/3151
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	45	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 days	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Rennie, 36 Driver Street, St. Kilda
Folio	1269
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

4 January 1921

George Leslie
Rosina McGuigan

George Leslie
Rosina McGuigan
💍 1921/3152

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic

39
33

Dunedin
Milton

3 days
33 years

St. Andrews Church, Dunedin

1270

4 January 1921

H. Maclean, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Leslie	Rosina McGuigan
	💍 1921/3152
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic
Age	39	33
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Milton
Length of Residence	3 days	33 years
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church, Dunedin
Folio	1270
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	H. Maclean, Presbyterian

4 January 1921

Rothery Richard Lavers
Elsie Florence Dent

Rothery Richard Lavers
Elsie Florence Dent
💍 1921/3154

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman

31
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 days
21 years

Residence of Mr. H.J. Dent, 109 Harrow Street, Dunedin

1271

4 January 1921

W.J. Oxbrow, Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rothery Richard Lavers	Elsie Florence Dent
	💍 1921/3154
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 days	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H.J. Dent, 109 Harrow Street, Dunedin
Folio	1271
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	W.J. Oxbrow, Methodist

4 January 1921

John Wren
Annie Brosnahan

John Wren
Annie Brosnahan
💍 1921/3155

John Clarke
Ellen Brosnahan
💍 1921/6248

Bachelor
Spinster

Book Binder

33
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
4 days

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

1272

4 January 1921

J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	4 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wren	Annie Brosnahan
	💍 1921/3155
BDM Match (61%)	John Clarke	Ellen Brosnahan
	💍 1921/6248
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Book Binder
Age	33	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1272
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

5 January 1921

Clarence William Welsh
Netta Jane Jones Reynolds

Clarence William Welsh
Netta Jane Jones Reynolds
💍 1921/3156

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine Driver

28
18

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 week
18 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

1273

Agnes Selina Reynolds (Mother)

5 January 1921

Deputy Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	5 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence William Welsh	Netta Jane Jones Reynolds
	💍 1921/3156
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine Driver
Age	28	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 week	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	1273
Consent	Agnes Selina Reynolds (Mother)
Date of Certificate	5 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).