Intentions to Marry, 1868

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840380, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 719

District of Quarter ending

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
115	4 April 1868	Thomas McChenny Catherine Paterson	Thomas McChesney Catherine Paterson 💍 1868/9488	Bachelor Widow	Ex Constable	25 35	Invercargill Invercargill	4 years 4 years	In the house of the said Catherine Paterson at Invercargill	2285		8 April 1868	R. S. Burn
116	11 April 1868	James Reed Margaret Boughup	James Reed Margaret Banghup Henderson 💍 1868/9563	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	33 21	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 4 years	In the Presbyterian Church Invercargill	2309		11 April 1868	A. H. Stobo
117	11 April 1868	John McLaren Agnes Hosie	John McLaren Agnes Hosie 💍 1868/9560	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Cook	28 24	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 3 weeks	In the house of M. Langeman in Tay Street Invercargill	2308		11 April 1868	A. H. Stobo
118	15 April 1868	John Hamilton Mary McHorick	John Hamilton Mary McIlwrick 💍 1868/9515	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 23	Forest Hill Maikiwi	5 years 4 years	In the house of John McMurrich Maikiwi	2294		15 April 1868	A. Stevens
119	18 April 1868	Rodney Stewart Lyons Sabine Pasley		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 23	Ohrummika Invercargill	5 years 4 years	In the house of William Mcheod in Deveron St Invercargill	2310		18 April 1868	A. H. Stobo
120	25 April 1868	Robert Meikle Margaret McSporran	Robert Meikle McCallum Margaret McSpurran 💍 1868/9422	Bachelor Spinster	Station manager	28 27	Seaward Downs Seaward Downs	5 years 1 year	In the house of Th. Alexander at Long Bush	2262		25 April 1868	J. Alexander
121	1 May 1868	James Scott Elizabeth Laurie	James Scott Elizabeth Laurie 💍 1868/9425	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	27 17	Long Bush Long Bush	7 years 2.5 years	In the house of Peter Laurie Long Bush	2263	Peter Laurie, Father	7 May 1868	J. Alexander
122	15 May 1868	Kenneth McDonald Mary McKercher	Kenneth McDonald Mary McKercher 💍 1868/9428	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	Forest Hill Long Bush	8 years 11 years	In the house of Isabella McKercher at Long Bush	2264	Isabella McKercher, Mother	15 May 1868	J. Alexander
123	20 May 1868	Michael Devany Honorah Dahony	Michael Devany Honorah Daloney 💍 1868/9458	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 23	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church at Invercargill	2275		20 May 1868	H. Belliard

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).