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 1076

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

12 February 1880

James Allen Dodd
Catherine Campbell

James Allen Dodd
Catherine Campbell
💍 1880/1147

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic Servant

21
17

Invercargill
Invercargill

12 years
4 years

At the Primitive Methodist Church

89/570

Martin Campbell, father

12 February 1880

Rev. C.E. Ward

No	12
Date of Notice	12 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Allen Dodd	Catherine Campbell
	💍 1880/1147
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic Servant
Age	21	17
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 years	4 years
Marriage Place	At the Primitive Methodist Church
Folio	89/570
Consent	Martin Campbell, father
Date of Certificate	12 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C.E. Ward

12 February 1880

George Tweedy Queale
Eliza Hall Blakie

George Tweedy Queale
Eliza Hall Blakie
💍 1880/1366

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
24

Ryal Bush
Ryal Bush

3 years
14 years

At the house of Peter Jas G. Paterson

87/420

13 February 1880

Rev. J.G. Paterson

No	13
Date of Notice	12 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Tweedy Queale	Eliza Hall Blakie
	💍 1880/1366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Ryal Bush	Ryal Bush
Length of Residence	3 years	14 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Peter Jas G. Paterson
Folio	87/420
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.G. Paterson

14 February 1880

Philip Charles Lee
Elizabeth Glen

Philip Charles Lee
Elizabeth Glen
💍 1880/1365

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic Servant

21
18

Invercargill
Invercargill

18 months
18 months

At the house of Rev. Jas Paterson

89/439

Duncan Glen, father

14 February 1880

Rev. J.G. Paterson

No	14
Date of Notice	14 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Charles Lee	Elizabeth Glen
	💍 1880/1365
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic Servant
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	18 months	18 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Rev. Jas Paterson
Folio	89/439
Consent	Duncan Glen, father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.G. Paterson

16 February 1880

John Valentine
Maria Small

John Valentine
Maria Small
💍 1880/1032

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic Servant

22
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
21 years

At the Office of the Registrar

80/571

16 February 1880

Arthur L. Henderson, Registrar

No	15
Date of Notice	16 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Valentine	Maria Small
	💍 1880/1032
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic Servant
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	21 years
Marriage Place	At the Office of the Registrar
Folio	80/571
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Arthur L. Henderson, Registrar

21 February 1880

Alexander Noble Lindsay
Rachel Wesney

Alexander Noble Lindsay
Rachel Wesney
💍 1880/1039

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

20
19

Invercargill
East Street Invercargill

18 years
15 years

At the house of Mc.Robert

95/578

Robert Lindsay, father

21 February 1880

Rev. Mr. Gunn

No	16
Date of Notice	21 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Noble Lindsay	Rachel Wesney
	💍 1880/1039
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	East Street Invercargill
Length of Residence	18 years	15 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mc.Robert
Folio	95/578
Consent	Robert Lindsay, father
Date of Certificate	21 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Mr. Gunn

25 February 1880

Charles Mann
Jane Hastings

Charles Mann
Jane Hastings
💍 1880/1367

Charles Kemp
Bridget Hastings
💍 1880/2261

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman

34
19

Clifton
Otatara Bush

12 months
4 years

At the house of Rev. J.G. Paterson

80/141

John Hastings, father

25 February 1880

Rev. J.G. Paterson

No	17
Date of Notice	25 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Mann	Jane Hastings
	💍 1880/1367
BDM Match (65%)	Charles Kemp	Bridget Hastings
	💍 1880/2261
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman
Age	34	19
Dwelling Place	Clifton	Otatara Bush
Length of Residence	12 months	4 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Rev. J.G. Paterson
Folio	80/141
Consent	John Hastings, father
Date of Certificate	25 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.G. Paterson

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).