Intentions to Marry, 1924 Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840527, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1924 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.

1924h contains pages 3075-3498, covering districts from Dunstan to Chatham Islands

Page 3362

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1924 Registrar McFarlane

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

19 March 1924

Leon Augustus Norris
Annie Harper

Leon Augustus Norris
Annie Harper
💍 1924/10282

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

27
27

Invercargill
Invercargill

27 years
27 years

First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill

2356

19 March 1924

J. L. Robinson (Presbyterian)

No	46
Date of Notice	19 March 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leon Augustus Norris	Annie Harper
	💍 1924/10282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	27 years	27 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	2356
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1924
Officiating Minister	J. L. Robinson (Presbyterian)

21 March 1924

Alexander Fearston Lindsay
Annie Rankin Mitchell

Alexander Pearston Lindsay
Annie Rankin Mitchell
💍 1924/10283

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

31
28

Invercargill
Ryal Bush

few hours
19 years

First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill

2357

21 March 1924

W. W. French (Presbyterian)

No	47
Date of Notice	21 March 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Fearston Lindsay	Annie Rankin Mitchell
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Pearston Lindsay	Annie Rankin Mitchell
	💍 1924/10283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31	28
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Ryal Bush
Length of Residence	few hours	19 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	2357
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 March 1924
Officiating Minister	W. W. French (Presbyterian)

22 March 1924

Angus Wallace Morrison
Christina McInnes Thomson

Angus Wallace Morrison
Christina McInnes Thomson
💍 1924/10284

Bachelor
Spinster

Line Foreman

37
28

Invercargill
Invercargill

37 years
22 years

St. Paul's Church, Dee Street, Invercargill

2358

22 March 1924

H. G. Gilbert (Presbyterian)

No	48
Date of Notice	22 March 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Angus Wallace Morrison	Christina McInnes Thomson
	💍 1924/10284
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Line Foreman
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	37 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church, Dee Street, Invercargill
Folio	2358
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1924
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gilbert (Presbyterian)

25 March 1924

John Stanley Sawers
Mavis Enid Winifred Ramsay

John Stanley Sawers
Mavis Winifred Enid Ramsay
💍 1924/6

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

23
19

Riversdale
Invercargill

2 months
24 years

Knox Church, Ean Street, Invercargill

2359

Charles Ramsay (Father)

25 March 1924

J. Chisholm (Presbyterian)

No	49
Date of Notice	25 March 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stanley Sawers	Mavis Enid Winifred Ramsay
BDM Match (81%)	John Stanley Sawers	Mavis Winifred Enid Ramsay
	💍 1924/6
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Riversdale	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 months	24 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Ean Street, Invercargill
Folio	2359
Consent	Charles Ramsay (Father)
Date of Certificate	25 March 1924
Officiating Minister	J. Chisholm (Presbyterian)

25 March 1924

James Raymond Walsh
Stella Rose Simon

James Raymond Walsh
Stella Rose Simon
💍 1924/10262

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
28

Invercargill
Wellington

8 months
12 years

St. Anne's Church, Wellington South

2360

25 March 1924

J. Kelly (Roman Catholic)

No	50
Date of Notice	25 March 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Raymond Walsh	Stella Rose Simon
	💍 1924/10262
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	28
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Wellington South
Folio	2360
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1924
Officiating Minister	J. Kelly (Roman Catholic)

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).