Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 744

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
529	1 October 1870	Andrew Cowie Jane Isabella Cowie	Andrew Cowie Jane Isabella Cowie 💍 1870/9315	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 19	Winton Invercargill	2 years 6 months	In the House of Mr Cruickshank, Tay Street, Invercargill	1 October 1870	Revd. A.H. Stobo
530	10 October 1870	William Luke Organ Sarah Wesney	William Luke Organ Sarah Ann Wesney 💍 1870/9366	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 20	Invercargill Invercargill	10 years 6 years	In the Wesleyan Church at Invercargill	10 October 1870	Revd. J.S. Rishworth
531	20 October 1870	Valentine George Printz Caroline Howell	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	42 21	Invercargill Invercargill	1 Month 14 days	In the House of Mr Cleare at Harewood, Invercargill	20 October 1870	Revd. J.S. Rishworth
532	8 October 1870	William Lyon Jane Alexander McKenzie	William Lyon Jane Alexander McKenzie 💍 1870/9318	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 27	Invercargill Invercargill	3 years 1 Month	In the House of James Lyon, Sylvan Bank, Invercargill	26 October 1870	Revd. A.H. Stobo
533	22 November 1870	Stephen Noble Brown Margaret Sloan	Stephen Noble Brown Margaret Sloan 💍 1870/9327	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 22	Invercargill Invercargill	10 years 7 years	In the House of Mr Sloan, Sylvan Bank, Invercargill	22 November 1870	Revd. A.H. Stobo
534	24 November 1870	Henry Moir Cecelia Dun	Henry Moir Cecilia Dan 💍 1870/9324	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	31 28	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 14 days	At the House of Mr. Peters, Spey Street, Invercargill	24 November 1870	Revd. A.H. Stobo
535	1 December 1870	Pevrall Evrall Margaret Kennedy	Pevrall Evrall Margaret Kennedy 💍 1870/9321	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	31 17	Invercargill Invercargill	6 years 8 months	Typaro In the House of Mr. Keon, East Road Invercargill	17 November 1870	Revd. A.H. Stobo

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1899. 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).