Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 761

District of Invercargill Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
595	8 January 1872	James Hird Alice Pentland	James Hynd Alice Pentland 💍 1872/7667	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	32 28	New River One Tree Point	12 yrs 6	the House of Wm Smith farmer One Tree Point	1972/2026		11 January 1872	Rev J. Rishworth
596	24 January 1872	William Burr Reid Agnes Minuely	William Barr Reid Agnes D Tannock 💍 1872/5492	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	30 25	Long Bush Long Bush	8 years 11 years	the House of James Williams Long Bush	2193		24 January 1872	Wm Pears (per R. Rose Deputy Registrar
597	30 January 1872	Archibald Brown Campbell Isabella Strang	Archibald Brown Campbell Isabella Strang 💍 1872/7712	Bachelor Spinster	Shipping Agent	25 18	Invercargill Gladstone	10 years 9	Dwelling House of Wm Strang Gladstone	2041		30 January 1872	Rev Andrew Stobs
598	9 February 1872	James McChesney Christina McGregor Clark	James McChesney Christina McGregor Clark 💍 1872/7670	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	25 21	Greenhills Green hills	7 years 10 years	House of Alexander Clark Greenhills	2027		9 February 1872	Rev John Rishworth
599	13 February 1872	John Bennworth Sutton Margaret Nelson Marlow	John Beuinworth Sutton Margaret Wilson Morton 💍 1872/7727	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	34 19	Garry Owen Wallace Town	8 years	All Saints Church Ryal Bush	2046	John Marlow father	13 February 1872	Rev William Oldham
600	19 February 1872	William Robertson Hasler Ellen Sloan	William Robertston Fraser Ellen Sloan 💍 1872/7673	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 25	Wellingtons Estate Invercargill	8 years 12 years	At the House of Wm Hasler Wellingtons Estate	2028		19 February 1872	Rev Andrew Stobs
602	9 March 1872	Alexander Vallance Margaret McLeod	Alexander Vallance Margaret Hislop 💍 1872/7682	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 19	Waikoikoi nr Invercargill Harrisville	3 years	the House of John McLeod Harrisville	2031	John McLeod father	9 March 1872	Rev John L. Rishworth
603	8 March 1872	Robert Heslop Henrietta Popenhagen	Robert Horton Henrietta Popenhagen 💍 1872/7742	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	38 16	Invercargill Waikiwi Bush Invercargill	8 years 9 years	Registrars Office Invercargill	434	John Popenhagen father	8 March 1872	The Registrar
603	12 March 1872	John Smith Andrews Kate Wilson Ingram	John Smith Andrews Kate Wilton Ingram 💍 1872/7676	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	25 18	Dee street Invercargill	2 months 13 years	In the home of Jane Ingram Dee street Invercargill	229	Jane Ingram Mother	12 March 1872	Rev. John S. Rishworth

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).