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 3404

District of 31 March 1921 Quarter ending Invercargill Registrar J. 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

15 January 1921

James Glennie
Louisa Blomfield

James Glennie
Louisa Blomfield
💍 1921/10071

Widower (5/5/17)
Spinster

Ranger
Tailoress

49
45

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 months
45 years

Residence of Rev. H. G. Gilbert, Barnlaw Street, Invercargill

2817

15 January 1921

H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	15 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Glennie	Louisa Blomfield
	💍 1921/10071
Condition	Widower (5/5/17)	Spinster
Profession	Ranger	Tailoress
Age	49	45
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 months	45 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. H. G. Gilbert, Barnlaw Street, Invercargill
Folio	2817
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1921
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

18 January 1921

Hugh Gordon Spiwat
Jessie Hardie Stirling

Hugh Gordon Sproat
Jessie Hardie Stirling
💍 1921/10072

Bachelor
Spinster

School Teacher
Domestic

27
23

Invercargill
Waimahaka

3 days
13 years

Presbyterian Church, Lay Street, Invercargill

2818

18 January 1921

E. Gardiner, Presbyterian

No	7
Date of Notice	18 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Gordon Spiwat	Jessie Hardie Stirling
BDM Match (94%)	Hugh Gordon Sproat	Jessie Hardie Stirling
	💍 1921/10072
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	School Teacher	Domestic
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Waimahaka
Length of Residence	3 days	13 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Lay Street, Invercargill
Folio	2818
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1921
Officiating Minister	E. Gardiner, Presbyterian

18 January 1921

Angus Smith
Lily Tomlinson

Angus Smith
Lily Tomlinson
💍 1921/10073

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Shop Assistant

34
29

Makarewa
Makarewa

28 years
16 years

Residence of Rev. H. G. Gilbert, Barnlaw Street, Invercargill

2819

18 January 1921

H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	18 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Angus Smith	Lily Tomlinson
	💍 1921/10073
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Shop Assistant
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Makarewa	Makarewa
Length of Residence	28 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. H. G. Gilbert, Barnlaw Street, Invercargill
Folio	2819
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1921
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

21 January 1921

John Francis Duggan
Catherine Maria Bates

John Francis Duggan
Catherine Maria Bates
💍 1921/10075

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

35
23

My's Bush, Invercargill
Invercargill

-
2 weeks

Roman Catholic Church, Tyne Street, Invercargill

2820

21 January 1921

W. Burke, Roman Catholic

No	9
Date of Notice	21 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Francis Duggan	Catherine Maria Bates
	💍 1921/10075
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	35	23
Dwelling Place	My's Bush, Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	-	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Tyne Street, Invercargill
Folio	2820
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1921
Officiating Minister	W. Burke, Roman Catholic

22 January 1921

James Albert Plytock
Mary Elizabeth Reinke

James Albert Whytock
Mary Elizabeth Reinke
💍 1921/10076

Bachelor
Spinster

Flour-miller
Domestic

34
33

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

Registrar's Office, Invercargill

2821

22 January 1921

J. G. Petrie, Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	22 January 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Albert Plytock	Mary Elizabeth Reinke
BDM Match (95%)	James Albert Whytock	Mary Elizabeth Reinke
	💍 1921/10076
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Flour-miller	Domestic
Age	34	33
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Invercargill
Folio	2821
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1921
Officiating Minister	J. G. Petrie, Registrar

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).