Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 893

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1873

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
680	6 October 1873	James Turnbull Harrett Pope	James Turnbull Harriet Pope 💍 1873/8881	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 21	Invercargill Invercargill	11 years 1 year	At the Wesleyan Church	73/383		9 October 1873	The Rev. Mr. Taylor
681	13 October 1873	Richard William Williams Eliza Bolyer	Richard William Williams Eliza Colyer 💍 1873/8875	Bachelor Spinster	Run Holder	23 19	Otautau Invercargill	2 years 10 years	At the Church of England	73/1381	James Carves, father	13 October 1873	Rev. Mr. Sameer
682	13 October 1873	George Curtis Mary Ann Stevenson	George Curtis Mary Ann Stevens 💍 1873/10954	Widower Spinster	Rate Layer	35 23	Invercargill Invercargill	10 years 9 years	At the house of Geo Rais	73/2099		13 October 1873	The Rev. Father Carduy
683	15 October 1873	John Ford Bridget Ford	John Ford Bridget Ford 💍 1873/9385	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 27	Invercargill Invercargill	6 years 1 year	At the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill	73/1553		15 October 1873	The Rev. Father Cardeu
684	22 October 1873	John C Campbell Margaret McCalla	John Crosby Campbell Margaret McCalla 💍 1873/10957	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	34 36	Invercargill Invercargill	9 years 14 days	At the house Mr Hunter Station Master Bluff	73/2100		22 October 1873	The Rev. Mr. Westbrook
685	24 October 1873	Thomas Martin Eliza Tyler	Thomas Martin Eliza Tyler 💍 1873/10963	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	22 25	Invercargill Invercargill	12 months 3 weeks	At the house of Mrs Harley Invercargill	73/2102		27 October 1873	The Rev. Andrew Stobo
686	29 October 1873	Donald McLean Elizabeth Cafield	Donald McLean Elizabeth Caulfield 💍 1873/8884	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	25 30	Invercargill Invercargill	1 week 3 months	At the Albion Hotel Invercargill	73/1384		29 October 1873	The Rev. J. C. Taylor

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).