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 942

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 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

16 February 1875

Alexander Munro
Mary Ann Brown

Alexander Munro
Mary Ann Brown
💍 1875/2961

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Dressmaker

30
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
11 years

At the house of Mrs Brown Invercargill

75/3170

16 February 1875

Rev. A. H. Stobo Ord.

No	21
Date of Notice	16 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Munro	Mary Ann Brown
	💍 1875/2961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Dressmaker
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	11 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mrs Brown Invercargill
Folio	75/3170
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. H. Stobo Ord.

18 February 1875

Joseph Crosbie
Katherine Dunn

Joseph Crosbie
Katherine Dunn
💍 1875/75

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter

35
32

Invercargill
Invercargill

9 years
5 months

At the house of George Hill Invercargill

75/53

18 February 1875

Rev. J. A. Taylor

No	22
Date of Notice	18 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Crosbie	Katherine Dunn
	💍 1875/75
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter
Age	35	32
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	9 years	5 months
Marriage Place	At the house of George Hill Invercargill
Folio	75/53
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Taylor

18 February 1875

William Wallace Hall
Clara Mary Robinson

William Wallace Hall
Clara Mary Robinson
💍 1875/76

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

22
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

11 years
5 months

At the house of W L. Salmon Invercargill

75/54

19 February 1875

Rev. J. A. Taylor

No	23
Date of Notice	18 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Wallace Hall	Clara Mary Robinson
	💍 1875/76
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	11 years	5 months
Marriage Place	At the house of W L. Salmon Invercargill
Folio	75/54
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Taylor

22 February 1875

Michael McAnn
Katherine Maloney

Michael McCann
Katherine Moloney
💍 1875/292

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

23
21

Invercargill
Waikivi

11 months
7 months

At the Roman Catholic Church

75/303

22 February 1875

Rev Father Higgins

No	24
Date of Notice	22 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael McAnn	Katherine Maloney
BDM Match (90%)	Michael McCann	Katherine Moloney
	💍 1875/292
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Waikivi
Length of Residence	11 months	7 months
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church
Folio	75/303
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Higgins

22 February 1875

Charles Frederick Small
Matilda Elizabeth Pistora

Charles Frederick Small
Matilda Elizabeth Pistora
💍 1875/77

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

28
29

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 months
3 months

At the house of Mr Small Clyde St Invercargill

75/55

22 February 1875

Rev. J. A. Taylor

No	25
Date of Notice	22 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frederick Small	Matilda Elizabeth Pistora
	💍 1875/77
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 months	3 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Small Clyde St Invercargill
Folio	75/55
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Taylor

24 February 1875

John Belaney
Margaret McLennan

John Belany
Margaret McGlennan
💍 1875/2962

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Domestic Servant

31
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 days
7 days

At the house of the Rev. A. H. Stobo Invercargill

75/3171

24 February 1875

Rev. A. H. Stobo

No	26
Date of Notice	24 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Belaney	Margaret McLennan
BDM Match (90%)	John Belany	Margaret McGlennan
	💍 1875/2962
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Domestic Servant
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 days	7 days
Marriage Place	At the house of the Rev. A. H. Stobo Invercargill
Folio	75/3171
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. H. Stobo

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).