Intentions to Marry, 1863

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840375, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 426

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 November 1863

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
129	16 November 1863	Joseph Weavers Bradelia Shaw	Joseph Weavers Bedelia Cream 💍 1863/4471	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Governess	22 20	Myross Bush nr Invercargill Myross Bush nr Invercargill	5 years 9 months	In the Registrar's Office, Invercargill	1302	16 November 1863	John Hare
130	18 November 1863	Martin Phillip McDermott Catherine Mary Tinaly	Martin Philip McDermott Catherine Mary Fennally 💍 1863/4495	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Servant	23 22	Dee Street, Invercargill Spey Street, Invercargill	3 months 15 months	In the house of Robert Auld	1310	18 November 1863	A. H. Stobo
131	19 November 1863	James Hanna Ann Murray	James Hanna Ann Murray 💍 1863/4477	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	21 21	Esk St, Invercargill Tay Street, Invercargill	15 months 12 months	Church of England	1304	19 November 1863	W. P. James
132	19 November 1863	Thomas Cooper Mary Swan	Thomas Cooper Mary Swan 💍 1863/4483	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Servant	31 29	North Road, Invercargill Work Road, Invercargill	2 years 7 months	In the house of Thos Cooper	1306	19 November 1863	Benjamin Drak
133	19 November 1863	Edward Hargin Jessie Christie	Edward Hargin Jessie Christie 💍 1863/4492	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Dressmaker	25 18	Invercargill Invercargill	3 1/2 months 9 months	In the Church of England	1309	20 November 1863	W. P. James
134	21 November 1863	John Bonnar Wardrope Catherine Lockhart	John Bonnar Wardrop Catherine Lockhart 💍 1863/4489	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	24 23	Invercargill Invercargill	10 months 3 days	In the house of Mr Cochrane, Invercargill	1308	21 November 1863	A. H. Stobo
135	21 November 1863	Henry Joseph de Smidt Louisa Christiana Gold	Henry Joseph De Smidt Louise Christina Gohl 💍 1863/4504	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Servant	36 34	Campbelltown Waikivi near Invercargill	3 months 12 months	In the house of Mary Norman, Waikivi	1313	21 November 1863	A. H. Stobo

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).