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 3403

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Invercargill Registrar F. G. Petrie

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

John Dixon
Lavinia Isabella Nicol

John Dixon
Lavinia Isabella Nicol
💍 1921/10066

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

31
21

Lisbury
Woodend

6 months
12 months

Registrar's office, Invercargill

2812

6 January 1921

J. G. Petrie, Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	6 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Dixon	Lavinia Isabella Nicol
	💍 1921/10066
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Lisbury	Woodend
Length of Residence	6 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Invercargill
Folio	2812
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1921
Officiating Minister	J. G. Petrie, Registrar

10 January 1921

James Richard Butt
Ruth Ann Thomson

James Richard Butt
Ruth Ann Thomson
💍 1921/10067

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

24
25

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

Presbyterian Church, Dee Street, Invercargill

2813

10 January 1921

H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

No	2
Date of Notice	10 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Richard Butt	Ruth Ann Thomson
	💍 1921/10067
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Dee Street, Invercargill
Folio	2813
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 January 1921
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

11 January 1921

Alexander James Robertson
Ethie Ada May Longley

Alexander James Robertson
Ettie Ada May Longley
💍 1921/10068

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Shop Assistant

22
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

22 years
22 years

Methodist Church, Leet Street, Invercargill

2814

11 January 1921

H. A. Sharp, Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	11 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander James Robertson	Ethie Ada May Longley
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander James Robertson	Ettie Ada May Longley
	💍 1921/10068
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Shop Assistant
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Leet Street, Invercargill
Folio	2814
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1921
Officiating Minister	H. A. Sharp, Methodist

13 January 1921

John Clifford Bushton
Eleanor McConachie

John Clifford Buxton
Eleanor McConachie
💍 1921/10069

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nurse

28
26

Ryal Bush
Lochiel

26 years
23 years

Residence of Rev. J. Lawson Robinson, Tay Street, Invercargill

2815

13 January 1921

Rev. J. L. Robinson, Presbyterian

No	4
Date of Notice	13 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Clifford Bushton	Eleanor McConachie
BDM Match (95%)	John Clifford Buxton	Eleanor McConachie
	💍 1921/10069
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nurse
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Ryal Bush	Lochiel
Length of Residence	26 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. Lawson Robinson, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	2815
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. L. Robinson, Presbyterian

13 January 1921

Ernest William Newton
Inga Grace Newton (née Bassian)

Ernest William Newton
Inga Grace Newton
💍 1921/10070

Bachelor
Previously married at the Registrar's office at Invercargill on 10th December 1919

Farmer
Bank Clerk

33
34

Invercargill
Invercargill

2 weeks
34 years

Church of England, Tay Street, Invercargill

2816

13 January 1921

R. G. Coats, Anglican

No	5
Date of Notice	13 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest William Newton	Inga Grace Newton (née Bassian)
BDM Match (77%)	Ernest William Newton	Inga Grace Newton
	💍 1921/10070
Condition	Bachelor	Previously married at the Registrar's office at Invercargill on 10th December 1919
Profession	Farmer	Bank Clerk
Age	33	34
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 weeks	34 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	2816
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1921
Officiating Minister	R. G. Coats, Anglican

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).