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 3059

District of 30 September 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar [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

471

27 July 1921

William Martin Heckler
Ethel Grace Richards

William Martin Heckler
Ethel Grace Richards
💍 1921/2144

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
36

Milton
Dunedin

2 months
36 years

St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin

6764

27 July 1921

V.G.B. King, Anglican

No	471
Date of Notice	27 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Martin Heckler	Ethel Grace Richards
	💍 1921/2144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	36
Dwelling Place	Milton	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	36 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin
Folio	6764
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1921
Officiating Minister	V.G.B. King, Anglican

472

27 July 1921

Douglas Ratcliffe Ness
Jessie Ellen Frances Grey

Douglas Ratcliffe Ness
Jessie Ellen Frances Gray
💍 1921/2145

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

23
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
5 years

Residence of William Ness, 11 Chapel Street, Roslyn

6765

27 July 1921

W.R. Hutchison, Presbyterian

No	472
Date of Notice	27 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Ratcliffe Ness	Jessie Ellen Frances Grey
BDM Match (98%)	Douglas Ratcliffe Ness	Jessie Ellen Frances Gray
	💍 1921/2145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William Ness, 11 Chapel Street, Roslyn
Folio	6765
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1921
Officiating Minister	W.R. Hutchison, Presbyterian

473

28 July 1921

John Bourke
Agnes Mary O'Rourke

John Bourke
Agnes Mary O'Rourke
💍 1921/2146

Widower (25/11/1919)
Spinster

Gasworks Employee

61
49

Dunedin
Dunedin

59 years
49 years

St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

6766

28 July 1921

B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

No	473
Date of Notice	28 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bourke	Agnes Mary O'Rourke
	💍 1921/2146
Condition	Widower (25/11/1919)	Spinster
Profession	Gasworks Employee
Age	61	49
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	59 years	49 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	6766
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

474

28 July 1921

Robert Scott
Bessie Elizabeth Innes Walker

Robert Scott
Bessie Elizabeth Innes Walker
💍 1921/2147

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

29
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

29 years
6 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

6767

28 July 1921

Registrar

No	474
Date of Notice	28 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Scott	Bessie Elizabeth Innes Walker
	💍 1921/2147
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	29 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	6767
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

475

29 July 1921

Joseph Alfred Davie
Mary Feathers

Joseph Alfred Davie
Mary Feathers
💍 1921/2148

Bachelor
Widow (17/3/1918)

Taxi Proprietor

23
36

Dunedin
Dunedin

23 years
14 years

Residence of Rev. A. M. Finlayson, 22 Driver's Road, Dunedin

6768

29 July 1921

A.M. Finlayson, Presbyterian

No	475
Date of Notice	29 July 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Alfred Davie	Mary Feathers
	💍 1921/2148
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (17/3/1918)
Profession	Taxi Proprietor
Age	23	36
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	23 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. A. M. Finlayson, 22 Driver's Road, Dunedin
Folio	6768
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1921
Officiating Minister	A.M. Finlayson, 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).