Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 1097

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1878

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
46	15 June 1878	John McBratnie Isabella Grieve	John McCrostie Isabella Grieve 💍 1878/1634	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 20	Spar Bush New River	13 years 20 years	House of Mr Robert Grieve, New River	78/1537	Robert Grieve, father	15 June 1878	The Rev. Wm Stevens
47	15 June 1878	Daniel Morrison Helena Butterfield	Daniel Morrison Celena Butterfield 💍 1878/1630	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	35 17	Invercargill Butterfield	4 days 6 months	House of Mrs Butterfield, Invercargill	78/1548	Jane Butterfield, mother	15 June 1878	The Rev. Robt. Mcdowall
48	17 June 1878	George Williams Charlotte Jackson formerly Marsted	George Williams Charlotte Jackson 💍 1878/1641	Widower Widow	Laborer	46 44	Invercargill Invercargill	14 days 14 days	Office of Registrar, Invercargill	78/1535		17 June 1878	The Registrar, Invercargill
49	18 June 1878	James Douglass Agnes Anderson	James Douglas Agnes Anderson 💍 1878/1631 Robert Muller Agnes Anderson 💍 1878/1642	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	33 30	Invercargill Invercargill	1 week 14 days	House of Rev. A.H. Alexander, Woodlands	78/1549		18 June 1878	The Rev. A.H. Alexander
50	20 June 1878	George Thomas Harris Alice Morris	George Thomas Harris Alice Morris 💍 1878/1654	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 17	Invercargill Waikivi	3 months 3 months	Church of England, Gladstone	78/1542	Richard Morris, father	20 June 1878	The Rev. Wm. Knowles
51	24 June 1878	Edward Cockroft Mary O'Hara	Edward Cockroft Mary O'Hara 💍 1878/1655	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	26 25	Invercargill Invercargill	14 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	78/1557		24 June 1878	The Rev. Thos. Higgins
52	26 June 1878	Thomas Carmody Bridget Blaharty	Thomas Carmody Bridget Cloherty 💍 1878/1646	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 20	Invercargill Waikivi	3 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church, Invercargill	78/1556	Thomas Barry, guardian	26 June 1878	The Rev. A. Thos. Higgins

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).