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 3094

District of 31 December 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. H. Allen

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

640

27 October 1921

Henry Gordon Berry
Reta Evelyn Watkins

Henry Gordon Berry
Reta Evelyn Watkins
💍 1921/8551

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

21
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
3 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin

9302

B. Watkins (Mother)

27 October 1921

M.A.R. Pratt, Methodist

No	640
Date of Notice	27 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Gordon Berry	Reta Evelyn Watkins
	💍 1921/8551
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Stuart Street, Dunedin
Folio	9302
Consent	B. Watkins (Mother)
Date of Certificate	27 October 1921
Officiating Minister	M.A.R. Pratt, Methodist

641

27 October 1921

James Thomas Millow
Edith Dawson

James Thomas Millow
Edith Dawson
💍 1921/8558

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

28
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

28 years
3 months

All Saints Church, Dunedin

9303

27 October 1921

A.R. Fitchett, Anglican

No	641
Date of Notice	27 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Thomas Millow	Edith Dawson
	💍 1921/8558
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	28 years	3 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin
Folio	9303
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1921
Officiating Minister	A.R. Fitchett, Anglican

642

28 October 1921

Bruce Walter Bassett Raines
Florence McGregor Duncan

Bruce Walter Bassett Raines
Florence McGregor Duncan
💍 1921/8559

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employee

19
18

Dunedin
Queens Drive, St. Kilda

3 days
15 years

Methodist Church, Queens Drive, St. Kilda

9304

J. Raines (Mother), R. Duncan (Father)

28 October 1921

B. Metson, Methodist

No	642
Date of Notice	28 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bruce Walter Bassett Raines	Florence McGregor Duncan
	💍 1921/8559
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employee
Age	19	18
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Queens Drive, St. Kilda
Length of Residence	3 days	15 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Queens Drive, St. Kilda
Folio	9304
Consent	J. Raines (Mother), R. Duncan (Father)
Date of Certificate	28 October 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Metson, Methodist

643

28 October 1921

Thomas Henry Riddle
Lillias Nicol McGilvray

Thomas Henry Riddle
Lillias Nichol McGilvray
💍 1921/8560

Bachelor
Spinster

Mill Hand

26
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

26 years
9 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

9305

28 October 1921

Registrar

No	643
Date of Notice	28 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Riddle	Lillias Nicol McGilvray
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Henry Riddle	Lillias Nichol McGilvray
	💍 1921/8560
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mill Hand
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	26 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	9305
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

644

29 October 1921

William Henry Horder Fleet
Jessie Isabell Duff

William Henry Horder Fleet
Jessie Isabell Duff
💍 1921/8561

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

25
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
10 years

Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin

9306

J. Duff (Father)

29 October 1921

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	644
Date of Notice	29 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Horder Fleet	Jessie Isabell Duff
	💍 1921/8561
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, South Dunedin
Folio	9306
Consent	J. Duff (Father)
Date of Certificate	29 October 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, 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).