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 3256

District of 30 September 1921 Quarter ending Oamaru Registrar P. S. Chisholm

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

1 August 1921

Frederick William Ellis
Alice May Dalgleish

Frederick William Ellis
Alice May Dalgleish
💍 1921/4613

Bachelor
Spinster

Horse Trainer
Domestic

27
24

Invercargill
Pukeuri

24 years
24 years

Columba Sunday School, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru

7908

1 August 1921

Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

No	70
Date of Notice	1 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Ellis	Alice May Dalgleish
	💍 1921/4613
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horse Trainer	Domestic
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Pukeuri
Length of Residence	24 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Columba Sunday School, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru
Folio	7908
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

1 August 1921

William James McCallum
Nellie Campbell Bates

William James McCallum
Nellie Campbell Bates
💍 1921/4614

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer's Labourer
Domestic

29
27

Oamaru
Residence of Robert Binning, 53 Aln Street, Oamaru

6 months
18 months

Residence of Robert Binning, 53 Aln Street, Oamaru

7909

1 August 1921

Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

No	71
Date of Notice	1 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James McCallum	Nellie Campbell Bates
	💍 1921/4614
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer's Labourer	Domestic
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Residence of Robert Binning, 53 Aln Street, Oamaru
Length of Residence	6 months	18 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Robert Binning, 53 Aln Street, Oamaru
Folio	7909
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

8 August 1921

William Freeth
Dorothy Alice Booth

William Freeth
Dorothy Alice Booth
💍 1921/4591

Bachelor
Spinster

Boatbuilder
Domestic

26
22

Oamaru
Oamaru

7 days
18 years

Columba Manse, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru

7910

8 August 1921

Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

No	72
Date of Notice	8 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Freeth	Dorothy Alice Booth
	💍 1921/4591
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boatbuilder	Domestic
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	7 days	18 years
Marriage Place	Columba Manse, Wansbeck Street, Oamaru
Folio	7910
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter McLean, Presbyterian

15 August 1921

Arthur Ernest Elstone
Clare Hock

Arthur Ernest Elstone
Clare Hock
💍 1921/4592

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Musician

22
23

Georgetown
Georgetown

22 years
3 years

Roman Catholic Basilica, Oamaru

7911

15 August 1921

Rev. Daniel O'Connell, Roman Catholic

No	73
Date of Notice	15 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Ernest Elstone	Clare Hock
	💍 1921/4592
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Musician
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Georgetown	Georgetown
Length of Residence	22 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Basilica, Oamaru
Folio	7911
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Daniel O'Connell, Roman Catholic

15 August 1921

Henry Thomas Robinson
Rubina McAughtrie

Henry Thomas Robinson
Rubina McAughtrie
💍 1921/4593

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic

24
24

Oamaru
Kurow

4 days
24 years

St Pauls Presbyterian Church, Oamaru

7912

15 August 1921

Rev. Samuel Lawler Hunter, Presbyterian

No	74
Date of Notice	15 August 1921
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Thomas Robinson	Rubina McAughtrie
	💍 1921/4593
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Kurow
Length of Residence	4 days	24 years
Marriage Place	St Pauls Presbyterian Church, Oamaru
Folio	7912
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 August 1921
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Lawler Hunter, 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).