Intentions to Marry, 1867

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840379, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 678

District of Invercargill Quarter ending Oct - Dec

No	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
379	3 October 1867	William Young Jessie McLean	William Young Jessie McCleod 💍 1867/10135	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 22	Mabel Bush Mabel Bush	3 years 4 years	In the three Bells Hotel Invercargill	1981		3 October 1867	A. H. Stobo
380	12 October 1867	Edwin Townsend Catherine Galbraith	Edwin Townshend Catherine Galbraith 💍 1867/10114	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	Mairs Bush Maris Bush	5 years 5 years	In the house of D. McFarlane Maris Bush	1993		12 October 1867	R. S. Bunn
381	14 October 1867	Frederick George Stone Elizabeth Hunter	Fredrick George Stone Elizabeth Hunter 💍 1867/10111	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 23	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 3 years	In the house of the said Frederick George Stone Invercargill	1992		14 October 1867	R. S. Bunn
382	15 October 1867	Robert Laing Mary McDonald	Roderick Matheson Mary McDonald 💍 1867/10048	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Waikiwi Waikiwi	7 years 4 years	In the house of Donald McDonald at Invercargill	1996	Donald McDonald, father	15 October 1867	A. H. Stobo
383	15 October 1867	Amon Fairburn Thomasina Davidson	Andrew Fairlain Thomasina Davidson 💍 1867/10138	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	27 27	Otaramika One tree point	2 years 2 years	In the house of Alexander Smith at one tree point	1982		15 October 1867	J. Alexander
384	31 October 1867	Harry Charles Williams Mugg Margaret Jameson	Harry Charles William Wrigg Margaret Cameron 💍 1867/10072	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	24 19	Invercargill The Bluff Auckland	2 months 19 years	In the English church at Invercargill	1959	Richard Jameson, Father	31 October 1867	W. P. Tanner
385	9 November 1867	James Reid Alice Gilchrist	James Reid Alice Gilchrist 💍 1867/10180	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	28 24	Riverton Invercargill	4½ years 4½ years	In the house of John Sandison Invercargill	1998		9 November 1867	A. H. Stobo
386	9 November 1867	John Blue Helen Strang	John Blue Helen Strang 💍 1867/10177	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 23	Waianiwa Invercargill	4 years 4 years	In the house of John Laidlaw at Invercargill	1999		9 November 1867	A. H. Stobo

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).