Intentions to Marry, 1921 Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840503, 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.

1921h contains pages 3127-3538, covering districts from Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Page 3273

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Palmerston Registrar G. H. Oates

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

26 February 1921

Andrew Lyall Coombes
Helen Gillespie

Andrew Lyall Coombes
Helen Gillespie
💍 1921/10022

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager
Domestic Duties

25
23

Palmerston
Palmerston

1 year
23 years

Dwelling house of Charles Gillespie, Palmerston

2768

26 February 1921

Rev. John Davie, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	26 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Lyall Coombes	Helen Gillespie
	💍 1921/10022
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Palmerston	Palmerston
Length of Residence	1 year	23 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Charles Gillespie, Palmerston
Folio	2768
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Davie, Presbyterian

28 February 1921

George Anderson Walker
Mabel Florence McLellan

George Anderson Walker
Mabel Florence McLellan
💍 1921/10023

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Duties

51
21

Palmerston
Palmerston

9 years
1 month

Dwelling house of William Bootten, Palmerston

2769

28 February 1921

Rev. John Davie, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	28 February 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Anderson Walker	Mabel Florence McLellan
	💍 1921/10023
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Duties
Age	51	21
Dwelling Place	Palmerston	Palmerston
Length of Residence	9 years	1 month
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of William Bootten, Palmerston
Folio	2769
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Davie, Presbyterian

22 March 1921

William Gillespie Mayer
Ruth Hopetoun Austin

William Gillespie Mayer
Ruth Hopetoun Austin
💍 1921/10025

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher
Domestic Duties

23
20

Palmerston
Palmerston

1 year
9 years

Presbyterian Church, Palmerston

2770

Mary Austin, Mother

22 March 1921

Rev. John Davie, Presbyterian

No	3
Date of Notice	22 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gillespie Mayer	Ruth Hopetoun Austin
	💍 1921/10025
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher	Domestic Duties
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Palmerston	Palmerston
Length of Residence	1 year	9 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Palmerston
Folio	2770
Consent	Mary Austin, Mother
Date of Certificate	22 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Davie, Presbyterian

26 March 1921

William McKean
Winnifred May Penny

William McKean
Winnifred May Penny
💍 1921/10026

Bachelor
Spinster

Coal Miner
Domestic Duties

21
16

Shag Point
Palmerston

21 years
16 years

Dwelling house of R. Penny, Palmerston

2771

M. E. Penny, Mother

26 March 1921

Rev. T. S. Kavanagh, Roman Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	26 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William McKean	Winnifred May Penny
	💍 1921/10026
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coal Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	21	16
Dwelling Place	Shag Point	Palmerston
Length of Residence	21 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of R. Penny, Palmerston
Folio	2771
Consent	M. E. Penny, Mother
Date of Certificate	26 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. S. Kavanagh, Roman Catholic

26 March 1921

David Ireland
Gladys Irene Thomson

David Ireland
Gladys Irene Thomson
💍 1921/10027

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocers Assistant
Domestic Duties

24
19

Goodwood
Goodwood

20 years
19 years

St. Pauls, Goodwood

2772

F. B. Thomson, Mother

26 March 1921

Rev. C. W. Freeman, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	26 March 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Ireland	Gladys Irene Thomson
	💍 1921/10027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocers Assistant	Domestic Duties
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Goodwood	Goodwood
Length of Residence	20 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls, Goodwood
Folio	2772
Consent	F. B. Thomson, Mother
Date of Certificate	26 March 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. W. Freeman, Church of England

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).