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 2964

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Dunedin Registrar C. M. M. [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

6 January 1921

Robert Aird Dowden
Amy Alice Taylor

Robert Avid Dowden
Amy Alice Taylor
💍 1921/3157

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

42
26

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 1/2 years
4 months

First Church Dunedin

1274

6 January 1921

G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	6 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Aird Dowden	Amy Alice Taylor
BDM Match (94%)	Robert Avid Dowden	Amy Alice Taylor
	💍 1921/3157
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	42	26
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	4 months
Marriage Place	First Church Dunedin
Folio	1274
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1921
Officiating Minister	G.H. Balfour, Presbyterian

6 January 1921

Maurice Alexander Robson
Vera Wilhelmina Drummond

Maurice Alexander Robson
Vera Wilhelmina Drummond
💍 1921/3158

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk

27
22

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 months
2 years

Presbyterian Church South Dunedin

1275

6 January 1921

R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	6 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Alexander Robson	Vera Wilhelmina Drummond
	💍 1921/3158
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church South Dunedin
Folio	1275
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1921
Officiating Minister	R. Fairmaid, Presbyterian

7 January 1921

Henry James Cronk (commonly known as Henry James McKenzie)
Margaret Mary McCready

Henry James McCready
Margaret Mary McCready
💍 1921/3159

Bachelor
Spinster

Ship's Storeman

33
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

33 years
12 years

St. Josephs Cathedral Dunedin

1276

7 January 1921

B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

No	8
Date of Notice	7 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Cronk (commonly known as Henry James McKenzie)	Margaret Mary McCready
BDM Match (63%)	Henry James McCready	Margaret Mary McCready
	💍 1921/3159
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ship's Storeman
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	33 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Josephs Cathedral Dunedin
Folio	1276
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1921
Officiating Minister	B. Kaveney, Roman Catholic

7 January 1921

Francis Christian Olsen
Catherlia McCluskey

Francis Christian Olsen
Catherine McCluskey
💍 1921/3167

Widower 22:11:1918
Widow 1:12:1918

Labourer

32
44

Ravensbourne
Dunedin

31 years
28 years

Baptist Church Hanover Street Dunedin

1277

7 January 1921

H.K. Kempton, Baptist

No	9
Date of Notice	7 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Christian Olsen	Catherlia McCluskey
BDM Match (92%)	Francis Christian Olsen	Catherine McCluskey
	💍 1921/3167
Condition	Widower 22:11:1918	Widow 1:12:1918
Profession	Labourer
Age	32	44
Dwelling Place	Ravensbourne	Dunedin
Length of Residence	31 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Hanover Street Dunedin
Folio	1277
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1921
Officiating Minister	H.K. Kempton, Baptist

7 January 1921

Thomas Brown Veitch
Georgina Craig Burns

Thomas Brown Veitch
Georgina Craig Burns
💍 1921/3178

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

28
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

7 years
25 years

Knox Church Dunedin

1278

7 January 1921

T. Yuille, Presbyterian

No	10
Date of Notice	7 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Brown Veitch	Georgina Craig Burns
	💍 1921/3178
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church Dunedin
Folio	1278
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 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).