Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 1012

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1877

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
7	30 January 1877	Walter Riddle Jannery Marion Campbell Stebens	Walter Riddle Marian Campbell Stevens 💍 1877/31	Widower Spinster	Farm Manager	42 24	Wallacetown Wallacetown	10 years 10 years	House Ach-therens	77/1600		30 January 1877	A. H. Stobo
8	1 February 1877	William Henry Harrison Davenport Beeher Sarah Lang	William Henry Harrison Davenport Norah Lang 💍 1877/680	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	36 18	Invercargill Invercargill	7 years 7 years	Office	77/1595	Edward Davies, Guardian	14 February 1877	The Registrar
9	3 February 1877	John McLoughlen Bridget Cosgrove	John McLaughlan Bridget Cosgrove 💍 1877/714	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 19	Winton Winton	6 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	77/1604	Timothy Cosgrove, Guardian	3 February 1877	Thos Higgins
10	6 February 1877	William Pettigrew Ann Elizabeth Aithen	William Pettigrew Ann Elizabeth Aitken 💍 1877/30	Widower Spinster	Reporter	38 18	Gladstone Invercargill	15 years 16 years	House of J. Aithen, Tweed St	77/1599	John Aithen, Father	6 February 1877	A. H. Stobo
11	13 February 1877	John Stead Florence Small	John Stead Florence Small 💍 1877/682	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic Servant	22 20	Invercargill Invercargill	12 years 17 years	House of W. Stead, Yarrow St	77/1595	Joseph Henry Small, Father	13 February 1877	D. Mc Michol
12	13 February 1877	John German Brown Hannah Maria Dawson	John Gaunten Brown Hannah Maria Dawson 💍 1877/29	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	36 21	One Tree Point Seaward Bush	10 years 1 year	House of J. Henry Dawson	77/1598		13 February 1877	Thos Alexander
13	21 February 1877	William Wesley Elizabeth Louise Williams	William Wesney Elizabeth Louise Williams 💍 1877/683	Bachelor Spinster	Bookseller	21 21	Invercargill Invercargill	13 years 10 years	Lesleyan Church	77/1596		21 February 1877	D. Mc Michol

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 1899. 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).