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 2988

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar A. E. Schmid

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

126

28 February 1921

Ernest Arthur Earley
Maggie Guthrie Sime

Ernest Arthur Earley
Maggie Guthrie Sime
💍 1921/8764

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

23
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

21 years
24 years

Presbyterian Manse, Young Street, St. Kilda

1391

28 February 1921

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	126
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Arthur Earley	Maggie Guthrie Sime
	💍 1921/8764
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	21 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Young Street, St. Kilda
Folio	1391
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

127

28 February 1921

Charles Herbert Trevor Olliver
Evelyn Mary Ruby Campbell

Charles Herbert Trevor Olliver
Evelyn Mary Ruby Campbell
💍 1921/8765

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

23
23

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 days
12 months

First Church, Dunedin

1392

28 February 1921

J. U. Spence, Presbyterian

No	127
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Herbert Trevor Olliver	Evelyn Mary Ruby Campbell
	💍 1921/8765
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	12 months
Marriage Place	First Church, Dunedin
Folio	1392
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	J. U. Spence, Presbyterian

128

28 February 1921

Albert Victor Crombie
Charlotte Josephine Myra Downie

Albert Victor Crombie
Charlotte Josephine Myra Downie
💍 1921/8766

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

21
20

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
9 years

Registrar's Office, Dunedin

1393

C. J. Downie (Mother)

28 February 1921

Registrar

No	128
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Victor Crombie	Charlotte Josephine Myra Downie
	💍 1921/8766
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Dunedin
Folio	1393
Consent	C. J. Downie (Mother)
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Registrar

129

1 March 1921

Christopher Patrick Thomas
Grace Madden

Christopher Patrick Thomas
Grace Madden
💍 1921/8767

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

38
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin

1394

1 March 1921

C. Ardagh, Roman Catholic

No	129
Date of Notice	1 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Patrick Thomas	Grace Madden
	💍 1921/8767
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	38	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin
Folio	1394
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1921
Officiating Minister	C. Ardagh, Roman Catholic

130

1 March 1921

James Alexander Graham Summers
Frances Ann Stevenson Hunter

James Alexander Graham Summers
Frances Ann Stevenson Hunter
💍 1921/8768

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd

23
20

Berwick
Dunedin

10 years
7 years

House of W. Smith, 84 Duncan Street, Dunedin

1395

Maria Smith (Mother)

1 March 1921

C. Eaton, Methodist

No	130
Date of Notice	1 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alexander Graham Summers	Frances Ann Stevenson Hunter
	💍 1921/8768
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Berwick	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	7 years
Marriage Place	House of W. Smith, 84 Duncan Street, Dunedin
Folio	1395
Consent	Maria Smith (Mother)
Date of Certificate	1 March 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).