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 2985

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. M. D. [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

111

22 February 1921

George Dunnett Hunter
Annie Noble

George Dunnett Hunter
Annie Noble
💍 1921/8896

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent

41
35

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 months

Residence of Mr. L. Childs, 10 Eskvale Street, Musselburgh

1376

22 February 1921

S.J. Werren, Methodist

No	111
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Dunnett Hunter	Annie Noble
	💍 1921/8896
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent
Age	41	35
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. L. Childs, 10 Eskvale Street, Musselburgh
Folio	1376
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	S.J. Werren, Methodist

112

22 February 1921

Sidney Victor Wilson
Sheila Watters

Sidney Victor Wilson
Sheila Walters
💍 1921/8897

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Manager

25
26

Dunedin
Green Island

2 days
26 years

Residence of Mr. D. Watters, Green Island

1377

22 February 1921

J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

No	112
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Victor Wilson	Sheila Watters
BDM Match (96%)	Sidney Victor Wilson	Sheila Walters
	💍 1921/8897
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Manager
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Green Island
Length of Residence	2 days	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. D. Watters, Green Island
Folio	1377
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

113

22 February 1921

John Henry Longworth
Elizabeth Helen Jones

John Henry Longworth
Elizabeth Helen Jones
💍 1921/8898

Bachelor
Spinster

Coal Merchant

34
32

Dunedin
Dunedin

34 years
8 years

Holy Cross Church, St. Kilda

1378

22 February 1921

A. Wingfield, Anglican

No	113
Date of Notice	22 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Longworth	Elizabeth Helen Jones
	💍 1921/8898
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coal Merchant
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	34 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Holy Cross Church, St. Kilda
Folio	1378
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1921
Officiating Minister	A. Wingfield, Anglican

114

23 February 1921

Cecil Whitburn
Rubina Henrietta Richardson

Cecil Whitburn
Rubina Henrietta Richardson
💍 1921/8899

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

18
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 years
19 years

Residence of Mrs. Carveth, 312 Main Road, North East Valley

1379

B. Whitburn (Father), J. S. Carveth (Mother)

23 February 1921

R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

No	114
Date of Notice	23 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Whitburn	Rubina Henrietta Richardson
	💍 1921/8899
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	18	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Carveth, 312 Main Road, North East Valley
Folio	1379
Consent	B. Whitburn (Father), J. S. Carveth (Mother)
Date of Certificate	23 February 1921
Officiating Minister	R. E. Evans, Presbyterian

115

23 February 1921

Oliver James Stenhouse
Elizabeth Smith

Oliver James Stenhouse
Elizabeth Smith
💍 1921/8762

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
28

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
28 years

Residence of C. S. Smith, 298 York Place, Dunedin

1380

23 February 1921

W. Saunders, Congregational

No	115
Date of Notice	23 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oliver James Stenhouse	Elizabeth Smith
	💍 1921/8762
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	28
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Residence of C. S. Smith, 298 York Place, Dunedin
Folio	1380
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1921
Officiating Minister	W. Saunders, Congregational

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).