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 3018

District of 30 June 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. K. Kennedy

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

269

19 April 1921

Norman David Dougan
Ivy Mary McColl

Norman David Dougan
Ivy Mary McColl
💍 1921/1722

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

25
19

Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers

11 years
10 years

Knox Church, Dunedin

4060

H.H. McColl (Father)

19 April 1921

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	269
Date of Notice	19 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman David Dougan	Ivy Mary McColl
	💍 1921/1722
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	11 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	4060
Consent	H.H. McColl (Father)
Date of Certificate	19 April 1921
Officiating Minister	T. Yuille, Presbyterian

270

19 April 1921

Gerald George Austin
Jane Brown Taylor

Gerald George Austin
Jane Brown Taylor
💍 1921/1723

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

46
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

46 years
30 years

House of Mrs. J.B. Taylor, 12 Craigleith Street, North East Valley

4061

19 April 1921

G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

No	270
Date of Notice	19 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gerald George Austin	Jane Brown Taylor
	💍 1921/1723
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	46	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	46 years	30 years
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. J.B. Taylor, 12 Craigleith Street, North East Valley
Folio	4061
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 April 1921
Officiating Minister	G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

271

20 April 1921

David Vincent Gallaher
Mary Ellen Hannagan

David Vincent Gallaher
Mary Ellen Hannagan
💍 1921/1724

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
29 years

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

4062

20 April 1921

J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

No	271
Date of Notice	20 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Vincent Gallaher	Mary Ellen Hannagan
	💍 1921/1724
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	29 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	4062
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1921
Officiating Minister	J. Coffey, Roman Catholic

272

20 April 1921

Norman Leonard Francis Wood
Annie Rita Bastings

Norman Leonard Francis Wood
Annie Rita Bastings
💍 1921/7313

Bachelor
Spinster

Mercer

32
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

32 years
5 years

St. Johns Church, Roslyn

5702

20 April 1921

W.A.R. Fitchett, Anglican

No	272
Date of Notice	20 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Leonard Francis Wood	Annie Rita Bastings
	💍 1921/7313
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mercer
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	32 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Roslyn
Folio	5702
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1921
Officiating Minister	W.A.R. Fitchett, Anglican

273

20 April 1921

Francis Sidney Simpson
Olive Elizabeth Oliver

Francis Sydney Simpson
Olive Elizabeth Oliver
💍 1921/1725

Bachelor
Spinster

Drapery Salesman

27
24

Waimate
Waimate

13 years
24 years

Methodist Church, Cargill Road, Dunedin

4063

20 April 1921

R. Raine, Methodist

No	273
Date of Notice	20 April 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Sidney Simpson	Olive Elizabeth Oliver
BDM Match (98%)	Francis Sydney Simpson	Olive Elizabeth Oliver
	💍 1921/1725
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drapery Salesman
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Waimate	Waimate
Length of Residence	13 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Cargill Road, Dunedin
Folio	4063
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Raine, 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).