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 3091

District of 31 December 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

625

20 October 1921

Francis Henry Gibson
Jessie Ann Lorimer

Francis Henry Gibson
Jessie Ann Lorimer
💍 1921/8520

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

35
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

Knox Church, Dunedin

9288

20 October 1921

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	625
Date of Notice	20 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Henry Gibson	Jessie Ann Lorimer
	💍 1921/8520
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	9288
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1921
Officiating Minister	T. Yuille, Presbyterian

626

20 October 1921

Louis Cyril Hislop Gooch
Lilian Clark

Louis Cyril Hislop Gooch
Lilian Clark
💍 1921/8521

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

32
30

Port Chalmers
Dunedin

18 months
1 week

Presbyterian Manse, 33 Young Street, St. Kilda

9289

20 October 1921

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	626
Date of Notice	20 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Cyril Hislop Gooch	Lilian Clark
	💍 1921/8521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	1 week
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 33 Young Street, St. Kilda
Folio	9289
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

627

20 October 1921

William Nancarrow
Isabel Ivey

William Nancarrow
Isabel Ivey
💍 1921/8522

Widower
Spinster

Shipping Clerk

62
50

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
5 days

St. Martins Church, North East Valley

9290

20 October 1921

J. H. Rogers, Anglican

No	627
Date of Notice	20 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Nancarrow	Isabel Ivey
	💍 1921/8522
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Shipping Clerk
Age	62	50
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	5 days
Marriage Place	St. Martins Church, North East Valley
Folio	9290
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 October 1921
Officiating Minister	J. H. Rogers, Anglican

628

21 October 1921

William John Bloxham
Katherine Jenkins

William John Bloxham
Katherine Jenkins
💍 1921/8523

Bachelor
Spinster

Power Machine Worker

24
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
25 years

Residence of Professor Thompson, 73 St. David Street, Dunedin

9291

21 October 1921

A. Cameron, Presbyterian

No	628
Date of Notice	21 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Bloxham	Katherine Jenkins
	💍 1921/8523
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Power Machine Worker
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Professor Thompson, 73 St. David Street, Dunedin
Folio	9291
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1921
Officiating Minister	A. Cameron, Presbyterian

629

21 October 1921

Trevor James Gray
Mary Ann Melville Kirk

Trevor James Gray
Mary Ann Melville Kirk
💍 1921/8524

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

20
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
2 years

Residence of Mrs. M. A. Kirk, 531 Leith Street, Dunedin

9292

G. Gray (Father)

21 October 1921

C. Eaton, Methodist

No	629
Date of Notice	21 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Trevor James Gray	Mary Ann Melville Kirk
	💍 1921/8524
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. M. A. Kirk, 531 Leith Street, Dunedin
Folio	9292
Consent	G. Gray (Father)
Date of Certificate	21 October 1921
Officiating Minister	C. Eaton, Methodist

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).