Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 980

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1875 Registrar J. A. Taylor

This page is very damaged and has been separated from the rest of the register.

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

13 September 1875

Claude Manu
Harriet Marted

Claude Mann
Harriet Maxted
💍 1875/2169

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

22
17

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 months
9 months

At the house of the Rev. W. Dean

75/2238

Harriet Marted Mother

13 September 1875

Rev. W. Dean

No	77
Date of Notice	13 September 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Manu	Harriet Marted
BDM Match (92%)	Claude Mann	Harriet Maxted
	💍 1875/2169
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 months	9 months
Marriage Place	At the house of the Rev. W. Dean
Folio	75/2238
Consent	Harriet Marted Mother
Date of Certificate	13 September 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Dean

13 September 1875

John Sutherland Fraser
Elizabeth Rodgers

John S Fraser
Elizabeth Rodgers
💍 1875/2114

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Dressmaker

31
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

12 years
9 months

At the house of John Cornwell, Clifton

75/2245

John Cornwell Brother

13 September 1875

Rev. W. Davidson

No	78
Date of Notice	13 September 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Sutherland Fraser	Elizabeth Rodgers
BDM Match (80%)	John S Fraser	Elizabeth Rodgers
	💍 1875/2114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Dressmaker
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 years	9 months
Marriage Place	At the house of John Cornwell, Clifton
Folio	75/2245
Consent	John Cornwell Brother
Date of Certificate	13 September 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Davidson

14 September 1875

William Burns
Ellen Owen

William Burns
Ellen Ewen
💍 1875/2170

Bachelor
Spinster

Shoemaker
Servant

22
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

9 months
2 months

At the house of the Rev. W. Dean

75/2239

14 September 1875

Rev. W. Dean

No	79
Date of Notice	14 September 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Burns	Ellen Owen
BDM Match (95%)	William Burns	Ellen Ewen
	💍 1875/2170
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shoemaker	Servant
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	9 months	2 months
Marriage Place	At the house of the Rev. W. Dean
Folio	75/2239
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Dean

15 September 1875

Henry Dimont
Anne Fettey

Henry Dimont
Annie Fessey
💍 1875/2096

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

28
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

18 months
18 months

At the house of Mr. Dimont, Harrisville, Invercargill

75/2257

15 September 1875

J. A. Taylor

No	80
Date of Notice	15 September 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Dimont	Anne Fettey
BDM Match (88%)	Henry Dimont	Annie Fessey
	💍 1875/2096
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	18 months	18 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr. Dimont, Harrisville, Invercargill
Folio	75/2257
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 September 1875
Officiating Minister	J. A. Taylor

17 September 1875

George Williams
Louisa Stevens

George Williams
Emma Stevens
💍 1875/2097

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

22
24

Invercargill
Invercargill

2 years
1 year

At the house of Mr. Styles

75/2252

17 September 1875

J. A. Taylor

No	81
Date of Notice	17 September 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Williams	Louisa Stevens
BDM Match (82%)	George Williams	Emma Stevens
	💍 1875/2097
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr. Styles
Folio	75/2252
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1875
Officiating Minister	J. A. Taylor

17 September 1875

[illegible]
[page is torn, name inferred from folio number]
[illegible]
[page is torn, name inferred from folio number]

Allen Johnson
Harriet Peacock
💍 1875/2098

Bachelor

Sawmiller

30
22

Clifton
Clifton

8 years
12 months

At the house of Allen Johnston, Clifton

75/2253

17 September 1875

J. A. Taylor

No	82
Date of Notice	17 September 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	[illegible] [page is torn, name inferred from folio number]	[illegible] [page is torn, name inferred from folio number]
BDM Match (11%)	Allen Johnson	Harriet Peacock
	💍 1875/2098
Condition	Bachelor
Profession	Sawmiller
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Clifton	Clifton
Length of Residence	8 years	12 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Allen Johnston, Clifton
Folio	75/2253
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1875
Officiating Minister	J. A. 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 1903. 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).