Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 735

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1871

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
583	2 October 1871	Thomas Fitzgerald Sarah Ford	Thomas Fitzgerald Sarah Ford 💍 1871/8079	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 24	Repuki Invercargill	3 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	431		2 October 1871	Ernest H. Ingpen
584	7 October 1871	David Findlay Charlotte Cuthbert	David Findlay Charlotte Cuthbert 💍 1871/6666	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	30 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 weeks 4 years	The private Residence of Sir Thomas Moodie, Clifton	71/46		7 October 1871	Ernest H. Ingpen
585	12 October 1871	John Robertson Mary Grace McKay	James Robertson Mary Grace McKay 💍 1871/6726	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	32 21	Harrisville Invercargill	1 year 8 years	Wesleyan Church	72/64		12 October 1871	Rev. ~ Rishworth
586	21 October 1871	Andrew Hawkshaw Margaret Milue	Andrew Hawkshaw Margaret Milne 💍 1871/6714	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	32 21	Invercargill Invercargill	9 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Invercargill	72/51		21 October 1871	Rev Father Coleman
587	24 October 1871	James Burgess Rachel Laddie	James Burgess Rachel Addie 💍 1871/6729	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	33 23	Invercargill Chatsworth	6 years 1 year	The house of William Adamson, Chatsworth, Invercargill	72/68		24 October 1871
588	2 November 1871	James O. Briew Katherine Deegan	James O'Brien Catherine Deegan 💍 1871/9012	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	26 21	Invercargill Ryal Bush	7 years 3 years	The private Residence of Patrick Deegan, Ryal Bush	71/49		2 November 1871
589	6 November 1871	James Kilpatrick Euphemia Patterson Lawris	James Kilpatrick Euphemia Patterson Lawrie 💍 1871/8082	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 21	Forest Hill Forest Hill	3 years 7 years	The office of the Registrar Invercargill	72/32		6 November 1871	Ernest H. Ingpen
590	29 November 1871	Nisbett McRobie Sarah Stewart Sorder	Nesbett McRobie Sarah Stewart Lowder 💍 1871/8085	Bachelor Spinster	Tin-smith	27 19	Invercargill Woodlands	4 years 1 year	Registrar's Office	72/33	Archibald Lorder, father	29 November 1871	Ernest H. Ingpen
591	2 December 1871	Alfred Parker Amalia Jane Robison	Alfred Parker Amelia Jane Robinson 💍 1871/6753	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 17	Tokomairiro Invercargill	7 months 3 years	Moure Song, Bush, Invercargill	72/56	Mildred Robinson, mother	2 December 1871	A. St. Stobo
592	2 December 1871	George Young Isabella Hamilton	George Jarvey Isabella Hamilton 💍 1871/6732	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Waikiwi Invercargill	8 years 8 years	The Residence of John Hamilton, Harrisville	72/69	John Hamilton, brother	2 December 1871

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).