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 2990

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. R. Schmidt

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

136

2 March 1921

James Henry Lyng
Helen Marjorie McKinlay

James Henry Lyng
Helen Marjorie McKinlay
💍 1921/8772

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

21
19

Dunedin
Burnside

21 years
3 months

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

1400

Mina McKinlay (Mother)

2 March 1921

Registrar

No	136
Date of Notice	2 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henry Lyng	Helen Marjorie McKinlay
	💍 1921/8772
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Burnside
Length of Residence	21 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	1400
Consent	Mina McKinlay (Mother)
Date of Certificate	2 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

137

4 March 1921

William Alonza Morris
Caroline Agnes Hall

William Alonza Morris
Caroline Agnes Hall
💍 1921/8775

Bachelor
Spinster

Tram Conductor

21
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 years
20 years

All Saints Church, Dunedin

1401

M.T. Hall (Father)

4 March 1921

A.R. Fitchett, Anglican

No	137
Date of Notice	4 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alonza Morris	Caroline Agnes Hall
	💍 1921/8775
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tram Conductor
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin
Folio	1401
Consent	M.T. Hall (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 March 1921
Officiating Minister	A.R. Fitchett, Anglican

138

4 March 1921

Henry James Miller
Caroline Elizabeth Manderson

Henry James Miller
Caroline Elizabeth Manderson
💍 1921/8776

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
20

Dunedin
Mosgiel Junction

3 days
14 years

First Church, Dunedin

1402

A. Manderson (Father)

4 March 1921

G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

No	138
Date of Notice	4 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Miller	Caroline Elizabeth Manderson
	💍 1921/8776
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Mosgiel Junction
Length of Residence	3 days	14 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	1402
Consent	A. Manderson (Father)
Date of Certificate	4 March 1921
Officiating Minister	G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

139

4 March 1921

Thomas Brady
Dorothy Saywood

Thomas Brady
Dorothy Saywood
💍 1921/8777

Bachelor
Spinster

Mental Hospital Attendant, Public Servant

30
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 weeks
1 week

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

1403

Issued under Section 27

19 March 1921

C. Ardagh, Roman Catholic

No	139
Date of Notice	4 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Brady	Dorothy Saywood
	💍 1921/8777
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mental Hospital Attendant, Public Servant
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1403
Consent	Issued under Section 27
Date of Certificate	19 March 1921
Officiating Minister	C. Ardagh, Roman Catholic

140

7 March 1921

George Leslie Gordon Aitchison
Rebecca Gard Marshall

George Leslie Gordon Aitchison
Rebecca Gard Marshall
💍 1921/10159

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
29

Dunedin
Hampden

5 days
6 years

Holy Innocents Church, Dunedin

2956

7 March 1921

E.R. Nevill, Anglican

No	140
Date of Notice	7 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Leslie Gordon Aitchison	Rebecca Gard Marshall
	💍 1921/10159
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Hampden
Length of Residence	5 days	6 years
Marriage Place	Holy Innocents Church, Dunedin
Folio	2956
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 March 1921
Officiating Minister	E.R. Nevill, Anglican

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).