Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 1072

District of Unknown Quarter ending 1880

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

1 January 1880

John Gennett
Clara McKay

John Lunn
May McKay
💍 1880/2539

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster

28
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the house of Rev James Paterson Invercargill

1 January 1880

Rev. James Paterson

No	1
Date of Notice	1 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gennett	Clara McKay
BDM Match (61%)	John Lunn	May McKay
	💍 1880/2539
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of Rev James Paterson Invercargill
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paterson

3 January 1880

Henry Walter Williams
Barbara Ellen Johnson

Henry Walter Williams
Barbara Ellen Johnson
💍 1880/1030

Bachelor
Spinster

Quarryman
Domestic Servant

25
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 weeks
7 months

At the office of the Registrar Invercargill

701

no one to give consent

3 January 1880

Arthur C. Henderson Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Walter Williams	Barbara Ellen Johnson
	💍 1880/1030
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Quarryman	Domestic Servant
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 weeks	7 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar Invercargill
Folio	701
Consent	no one to give consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Arthur C. Henderson Registrar

5 January 1880

James Thomson
Margaret Wilhelm Scheyne

James Thomson
Margaret Wilhelmina Cheyne
💍 1880/640

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

30
24

Invercargill
Invercargill

2 weeks
5 years

At the house of James Scheyne North Invercargill

71/436

5 January 1880

Rev. James Paterson

No	3
Date of Notice	5 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Thomson	Margaret Wilhelm Scheyne
BDM Match (90%)	James Thomson	Margaret Wilhelmina Cheyne
	💍 1880/640
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 weeks	5 years
Marriage Place	At the house of James Scheyne North Invercargill
Folio	71/436
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paterson

5 January 1880

Thomas Brown
Edwarda Jessie Millar

Thomas Brown Alfred Daniel
Edwarda Jessie Miller
💍 1880/1038

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Employé
Milliner

21
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the house of Mr. William Millar Invercargill

801/574

5 January 1880

Rev. D. R. S. Runn

No	4
Date of Notice	5 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Brown	Edwarda Jessie Millar
BDM Match (71%)	Thomas Brown Alfred Daniel	Edwarda Jessie Miller
	💍 1880/1038
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Employé	Milliner
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr. William Millar Invercargill
Folio	801/574
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. R. S. Runn

6 January 1880

Frank Hewitt
Sarah Geary

Francis Hewit
Nora Geary
💍 1880/1145

Bachelor
Spinster

Valet

25
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

12 months
6 years

At the house of Mr Siddall South Invercargill

801/588

6 January 1880

Rev. Thomas Higgins

No	5
Date of Notice	6 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Hewitt	Sarah Geary
BDM Match (71%)	Francis Hewit	Nora Geary
	💍 1880/1145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Valet
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 months	6 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Siddall South Invercargill
Folio	801/588
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Higgins

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

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1903. 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).