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 3085

District of 31 December 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. E. McDougall

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

595

1 October 1921

Ernest Emanuel Trenwith
Marion Frances Barrie

Ernest Emanuel Trenwith
Marion Frances Barrie
💍 1921/10700

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
24

Dunedin
Timaru

26 years
24 years

Trinity Church

10621

1 October 1921

T. Stinson, Presbyterian

No	595
Date of Notice	1 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Emanuel Trenwith	Marion Frances Barrie
	💍 1921/10700
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Timaru
Length of Residence	26 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church
Folio	10621
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 October 1921
Officiating Minister	T. Stinson, Presbyterian

596

3 October 1921

Joseph Kenn Carnegie
Mildred Louise Ramsden Harris

Joseph Kenn Carnegie
Mildred Louise Ramsden Harris
💍 1921/8514

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

34
37

Dunedin
Dunedin

34 years
37 years

Residence of Rev. A. H. Wallace, 604 Castle Street Dunedin

9259

3 October 1921

A. H. Wallace, Congregational

No	596
Date of Notice	3 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Kenn Carnegie	Mildred Louise Ramsden Harris
	💍 1921/8514
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	34	37
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	34 years	37 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. A. H. Wallace, 604 Castle Street Dunedin
Folio	9259
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1921
Officiating Minister	A. H. Wallace, Congregational

597

3 October 1921

Herbert Thomas Mitchell
Agnes Gray

Herbert Thomas Mitchell
Agnes Gray
💍 1921/8515

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

22
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

22 years
22 years

First Church Dunedin

9260

3 October 1921

J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

No	597
Date of Notice	3 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Thomas Mitchell	Agnes Gray
	💍 1921/8515
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	First Church Dunedin
Folio	9260
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 October 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

598

4 October 1921

William Arthur Jarvis
Ivy Evelina Jackson

William Arthur Jarvis
Ivy Evelina Jackson
💍 1921/8493

Bachelor
Spinster

Cutter

27
21

Abbotsford
Green Island

27 years
10 years

Methodist Manse, 66 Fitzroy Street Caversham

9261

4 October 1921

G. P. Hunt, Methodist

No	598
Date of Notice	4 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Jarvis	Ivy Evelina Jackson
	💍 1921/8493
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cutter
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Abbotsford	Green Island
Length of Residence	27 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, 66 Fitzroy Street Caversham
Folio	9261
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 October 1921
Officiating Minister	G. P. Hunt, Methodist

599

4 October 1921

Stanley McCready
Dorothy Winifred McGee

Stanley McCready
Dorothy Winifred McGee
💍 1921/8494

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

22
20

Green Island
Green Island

2 days
20 years

Waratah Tea Rooms, Dunedin

9262

P. McGee (Father)

4 October 1921

J. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian

No	599
Date of Notice	4 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley McCready	Dorothy Winifred McGee
	💍 1921/8494
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Green Island
Length of Residence	2 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Waratah Tea Rooms, Dunedin
Folio	9262
Consent	P. McGee (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 October 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Kilpatrick, 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).