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 3354

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1924 Registrar Prosserwood

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

17 January 1924

Robert Edgar Blakie
May Ethel McDowall

Robert Edgar Blakie
May Ethel McDowall
💍 1924/10218

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
21

Ryal Bush
Ryal Bush

27 years
17 years

Presbyterian Church, Ryal Bush

2316

17 January 1924

W. W. French, Presbyterian

No	6
Date of Notice	17 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Edgar Blakie	May Ethel McDowall
	💍 1924/10218
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Ryal Bush	Ryal Bush
Length of Residence	27 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Ryal Bush
Folio	2316
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1924
Officiating Minister	W. W. French, Presbyterian

18 January 1924

William Edwin Townshend
Annie Elizabeth Cole

William Edwin Townshend
Annie Elizabeth Cole
💍 1924/10219

Bachelor
Spinster

Cheesemaker

23
20

Waianiwa
Piot Street, Invercargill

7 years
20 years

Church of Christ, Piot Street, Invercargill

2317

Albert Edward Cole (father)

18 January 1924

G. P. Fitzgerald, Church of Christ

No	7
Date of Notice	18 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edwin Townshend	Annie Elizabeth Cole
	💍 1924/10219
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cheesemaker
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Waianiwa	Piot Street, Invercargill
Length of Residence	7 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Piot Street, Invercargill
Folio	2317
Consent	Albert Edward Cole (father)
Date of Certificate	18 January 1924
Officiating Minister	G. P. Fitzgerald, Church of Christ

21 January 1924

Sidney Victor Todd
Margaret Hall

Sidney Victor Todd
Margaret Hall
💍 1924/10220

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

27
23

Woodend
Woodend

7 years
23 years

Presbyterian Church, Woodend

2318

21 January 1924

Rev. P. Gardiner, Presbyterian

No	8
Date of Notice	21 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Victor Todd	Margaret Hall
	💍 1924/10220
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Woodend	Woodend
Length of Residence	7 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Woodend
Folio	2318
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1924
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Gardiner, Presbyterian

23 January 1924

Gavin Muir
Janet McKelvie Buchanan

Gavin Muir
Janet McKelvie Buchanan
💍 1924/10222

Widower (16 Sep 1921)
Spinster

Storekeeper

31
25

Orawia
Invercargill

8 months
12 years

St. Paul's Church, Invercargill

2319

23 January 1924

H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

No	9
Date of Notice	23 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gavin Muir	Janet McKelvie Buchanan
	💍 1924/10222
Condition	Widower (16 Sep 1921)	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Orawia	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 months	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church, Invercargill
Folio	2319
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1924
Officiating Minister	H. G. Gilbert, Presbyterian

24 January 1924

Alfred George Couling
Hazel Gordon Patterson

Alfred George Couling
Hazel Gordon Patterson
💍 1924/10223

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

24 years
19 years

Registrar's office, Invercargill

2320

(no person in N.Z. having authority by law to give consent)

7 February 1924

Deputy Registrar

No	10
Date of Notice	24 January 1924
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred George Couling	Hazel Gordon Patterson
	💍 1924/10223
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	24 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's office, Invercargill
Folio	2320
Consent	(no person in N.Z. having authority by law to give consent)
Date of Certificate	7 February 1924
Officiating Minister	Deputy 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).