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 3088

District of 31 December 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. W. [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

610

12 October 1921

James Hubert Cowie
Margaret Arbuckle McArthur

James Hubert Cowie
Margaret Arbuckle McArthur
💍 1921/8506

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman

27
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

25 years
18 years

Residence of Mrs. A. Fisher, 45 Broughton Street, South Dunedin

9273

12 October 1921

R. Raine, Methodist

No	610
Date of Notice	12 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Hubert Cowie	Margaret Arbuckle McArthur
	💍 1921/8506
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	25 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. A. Fisher, 45 Broughton Street, South Dunedin
Folio	9273
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 October 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Raine, Methodist

611

12 October 1921

Roy Milne
Rosie Marie Reimer Campbell

Roy Milne
Rosie Marie Campbell
💍 1921/8507

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Salesman

32
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
14 years

Holy Cross Church, St. Kilda

9274

12 October 1921

A. Wingfield, Anglican

No	611
Date of Notice	12 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roy Milne	Rosie Marie Reimer Campbell
BDM Match (87%)	Roy Milne	Rosie Marie Campbell
	💍 1921/8507
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Salesman
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Holy Cross Church, St. Kilda
Folio	9274
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 October 1921
Officiating Minister	A. Wingfield, Anglican

612

12 October 1921

Andrew Robert Chisholm
Elsie Evalina Beatrice McLauchlan

Andrew Robert Chisholm
Elsie Evalina Beatrice McLauchlan
💍 1921/8508

Bachelor
Spinster

Minister of Religion

40
34

Dunedin
Ashburton

6 years
16 years

Presbyterian Church, Caversham

9275

12 October 1921

G. Miller, Presbyterian

No	612
Date of Notice	12 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Robert Chisholm	Elsie Evalina Beatrice McLauchlan
	💍 1921/8508
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Minister of Religion
Age	40	34
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Ashburton
Length of Residence	6 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Caversham
Folio	9275
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 October 1921
Officiating Minister	G. Miller, Presbyterian

613

14 October 1921

Gordon Kirkpatrick Neill
Annabel Robertson

Gordon Kirkpatrick Neill
Annabel Robertson
💍 1921/8516

Bachelor
Spinster

Consulting Optician

25
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

20 years
15 years

First Church, Dunedin

9276

14 October 1921

W. Trotter, Presbyterian

No	613
Date of Notice	14 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Kirkpatrick Neill	Annabel Robertson
	💍 1921/8516
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Consulting Optician
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	20 years	15 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	9276
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 October 1921
Officiating Minister	W. Trotter, Presbyterian

614

14 October 1921

Ernest Robert Barrar
Ruby Ann Adair Welsh

Ernest Robert Barrar
Ruby Ann Adair Welsh
💍 1921/8527

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

20
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
1 day

Knox Church Manse, 1 George Street, Dunedin

9277

L. Barrar (Mother)

14 October 1921

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	614
Date of Notice	14 October 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Robert Barrar	Ruby Ann Adair Welsh
	💍 1921/8527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	20	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Knox Church Manse, 1 George Street, Dunedin
Folio	9277
Consent	L. Barrar (Mother)
Date of Certificate	14 October 1921
Officiating Minister	T. Yuille, 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).