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 946

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1875 Registrar Arthur C Henderson

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

23 April 1875

John Hughes
Mary Ann Macnamara

John Hughes
Mary Ann Macnamara
💍 1875/1026

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Servant

27
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

15 years
12 months

At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill

75/1196

Job Coulan, guardian

23 April 1875

The Registrar

No	38
Date of Notice	23 April 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hughes	Mary Ann Macnamara
	💍 1875/1026
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Servant
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	15 years	12 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill
Folio	75/1196
Consent	Job Coulan, guardian
Date of Certificate	23 April 1875
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

27 April 1875

Charles Payne Raines
Jessie McConachy

Charles Payne Raines
Jessie McConechy
💍 1875/1207

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

12 years
12 years

At the house of W J Raines Invercargill

75/1255

27 April 1875

Rev J. A. Taylor

No	39
Date of Notice	27 April 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Payne Raines	Jessie McConachy
BDM Match (97%)	Charles Payne Raines	Jessie McConechy
	💍 1875/1207
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 years	12 years
Marriage Place	At the house of W J Raines Invercargill
Folio	75/1255
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev J. A. Taylor

7 May 1875

Robert Murrey
Christina Lawrenson

Robert Murray
Christina Lawrenson
💍 1875/1208

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

33
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

13 years
3 years

At the house of Mr Leslie Cheyne, Harewood

75/1256

Leslie Cheyne, Guardian

7 May 1875

Rev J. A. Taylor

No	40
Date of Notice	7 May 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Murrey	Christina Lawrenson
BDM Match (96%)	Robert Murray	Christina Lawrenson
	💍 1875/1208
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	13 years	3 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Leslie Cheyne, Harewood
Folio	75/1256
Consent	Leslie Cheyne, Guardian
Date of Certificate	7 May 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev J. A. Taylor

7 May 1875

Frank O'Donnell
Ann Murphey

Frank O'Donnell
Ann Murphy
💍 1875/1027

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

30
30

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 months
11 months

At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill

75/1197

7 May 1875

The Registrar

No	41
Date of Notice	7 May 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank O'Donnell	Ann Murphey
BDM Match (95%)	Frank O'Donnell	Ann Murphy
	💍 1875/1027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 months	11 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill
Folio	75/1197
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 May 1875
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

12 May 1875

Daniel Strang
Ann Stanford

Daniel Strang
Mary Ann Stanford
💍 1875/3099

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

28
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

12 years
12 years

At the house of Mr Stanford, McMasters Street, Invercargill

75/1205

Samuel Stanford, father

12 May 1875

Rev Mr Davidson

No	42
Date of Notice	12 May 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Strang	Ann Stanford
BDM Match (85%)	Daniel Strang	Mary Ann Stanford
	💍 1875/3099
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 years	12 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Stanford, McMasters Street, Invercargill
Folio	75/1205
Consent	Samuel Stanford, father
Date of Certificate	12 May 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev Mr Davidson

13 May 1875

Kenneth Burns Bain
Mary Ann Forsythe

Kenneth Burns Bain
Mary Ann Forsyth
💍 1875/1029

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

29
26

Invercargill
Invercargill

14 days
4 years

At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill

75/1198

13 May 1875

The Registrar

No	43
Date of Notice	13 May 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Kenneth Burns Bain	Mary Ann Forsythe
BDM Match (97%)	Kenneth Burns Bain	Mary Ann Forsyth
	💍 1875/1029
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	14 days	4 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill
Folio	75/1198
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 May 1875
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

18 May 1875

John Galbraith
Annie Phillips

John Galbraith
Annie Phillips
💍 1875/1107

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler
Domestic Servant

40
25

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 weeks
12 months

At the house of James Galbraith Invercargill

75/1207

18 May 1875

Rev Mr Davidson

No	44
Date of Notice	18 May 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Galbraith	Annie Phillips
	💍 1875/1107
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler	Domestic Servant
Age	40	25
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 weeks	12 months
Marriage Place	At the house of James Galbraith Invercargill
Folio	75/1207
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 May 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev Mr Davidson

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 1908. 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).