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 949

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

19 June 1875

John Grant
Agnes Wood

John Grant
Agnes Wood
💍 1875/1191

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager
Domestic Servant

35
26

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
18 months

At the house of Mr Knight, Waikivi

75/1263

19 June 1875

Rev. J. A. Taylor

No	59
Date of Notice	19 June 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Grant	Agnes Wood
	💍 1875/1191
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager	Domestic Servant
Age	35	26
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	18 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Knight, Waikivi
Folio	75/1263
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 June 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Taylor

22 June 1875

Richard Ryan
Jane Middlemiss

Richard Ryan
Jane Middlemiss
💍 1875/1032

Widower
Spinster

Carpenter
Dressmaker

54
38

Invercargill
Invercargill

11 years
6 months

At the office of the Registrar Invercargill

75/1201

22 June 1875

The Registrar

No	60
Date of Notice	22 June 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Ryan	Jane Middlemiss
	💍 1875/1032
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Dressmaker
Age	54	38
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	11 years	6 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar Invercargill
Folio	75/1201
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1875
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

23 June 1875

John Bowden Lake
Isabella Burn

John Bowden Lake
Isabella Burn
💍 1875/1089

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

32
32

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the office of the Registrar Invercargill

75/1202

23 June 1875

The Registrar

No	61
Date of Notice	23 June 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bowden Lake	Isabella Burn
	💍 1875/1089
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar Invercargill
Folio	75/1202
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1875
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

24 June 1875

Alexander Storie
Agnes Munro

Alexander Storie
Agnes Munro
💍 1875/1192

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

42
29

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 years
6 months

At the house of D Bonthron Dee St Invercargill

75/1264

24 June 1875

Rev. J. A. Taylor

No	62
Date of Notice	24 June 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Storie	Agnes Munro
	💍 1875/1192
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	42	29
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	At the house of D Bonthron Dee St Invercargill
Folio	75/1264
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 June 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Taylor

26 June 1875

Frederick William Schroeder
Mary Ann Hughes

Frederick W Schroeder
Mary Ann Hughes
💍 1875/1193

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

26
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

1 year
9 months

At the house of the Rev. J. A. Taylor Invercargill

75/1265

26 June 1875

Rev. J. A. Taylor

No	63
Date of Notice	26 June 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William Schroeder	Mary Ann Hughes
BDM Match (89%)	Frederick W Schroeder	Mary Ann Hughes
	💍 1875/1193
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 year	9 months
Marriage Place	At the house of the Rev. J. A. Taylor Invercargill
Folio	75/1265
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 June 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Taylor

26 June 1875

Edwin Charles Lovell
Anna Barraclough

Edwin Charles Tovell
Hannah Barrauclough
💍 1875/2113

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

32
17

Woodlands
Woodlands

4 years
4 years

At the house of Jonas Barraclough, Woodlands

75/2244

Jonas Barraclough, Father

26 June 1875

Rev. Thos. Alexander

No	64
Date of Notice	26 June 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Charles Lovell	Anna Barraclough
BDM Match (87%)	Edwin Charles Tovell	Hannah Barrauclough
	💍 1875/2113
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	32	17
Dwelling Place	Woodlands	Woodlands
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Jonas Barraclough, Woodlands
Folio	75/2244
Consent	Jonas Barraclough, Father
Date of Certificate	26 June 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Alexander

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).