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 3258

District of 30 September 1921 Quarter ending Oamaru Registrar S. S. Cauholm

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

10 September 1921

William Stuart McPhail
Gladys Mabel Radford

William Stuart McPhail
Gladis Mabel Radford
💍 1921/4598

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Fireman
Draper's Assistant

23
24

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
13 years

St. Luke's Anglican Church, Oamaru

7917

10 September 1921

Rev. John Delacourt Russell

No	80
Date of Notice	10 September 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Stuart McPhail	Gladys Mabel Radford
BDM Match (98%)	William Stuart McPhail	Gladis Mabel Radford
	💍 1921/4598
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Fireman	Draper's Assistant
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	13 years
Marriage Place	St. Luke's Anglican Church, Oamaru
Folio	7917
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 September 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Delacourt Russell

13 September 1921

James Gordon
Mimie McMurtrie

James Gordon
Mimie McMurtrie
💍 1921/4599

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach Builder
Typist

26
25

Oamaru
Oamaru

26 years
25 years

St. Pauls Church, Oamaru

7918

13 September 1921

Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter

No	81
Date of Notice	13 September 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Gordon	Mimie McMurtrie
	💍 1921/4599
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach Builder	Typist
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	26 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church, Oamaru
Folio	7918
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Fowler Hunter

19 September 1921

Stanley Baden Powell Hollow
Margaret Gillespie

Stanley Baden Powell Hollow
Margaret Gillespie
💍 1921/4600

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

21
19

Oamaru
Oamaru

21 years
19 years

Columba Sunday School Hall, Wanebeck Street, Oamaru

7919

Margaret Gillespie, Mother

19 September 1921

Rev. Walter McLean

No	82
Date of Notice	19 September 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Baden Powell Hollow	Margaret Gillespie
	💍 1921/4600
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	21 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Columba Sunday School Hall, Wanebeck Street, Oamaru
Folio	7919
Consent	Margaret Gillespie, Mother
Date of Certificate	19 September 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter McLean

20 September 1921

Samuel Gillies
Margaret Meikle Gemmell

Samuel Gillies
Margaret Meikle Gemmell
💍 1921/4602

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Duties

24
36

Hampden
Oamaru

24 years
3 days

Residence of William Clement Gemmell, Test Street, Oamaru

7920

20 September 1921

Rev. Walter McLean

No	83
Date of Notice	20 September 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Gillies	Margaret Meikle Gemmell
	💍 1921/4602
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Duties
Age	24	36
Dwelling Place	Hampden	Oamaru
Length of Residence	24 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of William Clement Gemmell, Test Street, Oamaru
Folio	7920
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 September 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter McLean

23 September 1921

Wilfred John Davies
Mary Frame Doak

Wilfred John Davies
Mary Frame Doak
💍 1921/4603

Bachelor
Spinster

Company Manager
School Teacher

34
29

Oamaru
Alma

34 years
29 years

Presbyterian Church, Totara

7921

23 September 1921

Rev. Alexander Watson

No	84
Date of Notice	23 September 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wilfred John Davies	Mary Frame Doak
	💍 1921/4603
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Company Manager	School Teacher
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Alma
Length of Residence	34 years	29 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Totara
Folio	7921
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 September 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alexander Watson

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).