Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 467

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1864

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
154	2 January 1864	Thomas Walker Emily Caroline McEvery	Thomas Walker Emily Caroline Widgery 💍 1864/5114 Thomas Walker Fany Turner 💍 1864/7833	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 25	Tay Street Do	1 year 6 weeks	In the English Church Invercargill	1826	3rd January 1864	Rev. J.P. Famin
155	9 January 1864	Frederick Bethel Sarah Hill	Frederic Ruichel Sarah Hill 💍 1864/5170	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Servant	22 22	Invercargill Do	9 months 3 months	In the house of Frederick Bethel Invercargill	1808	9th January 1864	Rev. J.P. Famin
156	11 January 1864	Charles Gustavus Walker Margant McGilbray		Bachelor Spinster	farmer	23 19	Ryal Bush New River	4 years 2 Years	In the House of Lachlan Fraser, Otiti	1847	11 January 1864	Rev. A. St. John
157	13 January 1864	William Christian Smith Augusta Marker	William Christian Smith Augusta Parker 💍 1864/5158	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 21	Town Belt Do	6 months 4 months	In the Office of the Registrar Invercargill	1804	13 January 1864	John Hair Registrar
158	26 January 1864	Cuthbert Cowan Henrietta Walker	Cuthbert Cowan Henrietta Wallace 💍 1864/5057	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	28 23	Otiti Ryal Bush	4 years 18 months	Mr. Wallis Ryal Bush	1848	26 January 1864	Rev. A. St. John
159	29 January 1864	Andrew Niven Isabella Harly	Andrew Niven Isabella Harley 💍 1864/5060	Widower Spinster	Drayman Servant	32 26	Invercargill Invercargill	7 Months 3 years	In the house of David Ritchie Invercargill	1849	29th January 1864	Rev. A. St. John
160	28 January 1864	Michael Delany Margant Tahey	Michael Delany Margaret Fahy 💍 1864/5374	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Roslyn Lee Tay St. Invercargill	5 years 4 Months	In the house of Thomas Connell Invercargill	1736	28 January 1864	Rev. Philliper Auld Martin
161	2 February 1864	John Stanton Bridget Connor	John Staunton Bridget Condren 💍 1864/5161 John Stengan Bridget Ryan 💍 1864/6969	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Servant	21 22	Invercargill Invercargill	10 Months 12 Months	In the office of the Registrar Invercargill	1805	2nd February 1864	John Hair Registrar
162	9 February 1864	Robert Munro Sarah McNee	Robert Munro Sarah Macull 💍 1864/5063	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	28 27	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 6 Months	In the house of Mrs. Gillespie, Dee Street Invercargill	1850	9 February 1864	Rev. A. St. John

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).