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 1078

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1880 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

1 March 1880

John Bennett
Eleanor Thomson Ingram

John Bennett
Eleanor Thomson Ingram
💍 1880/1346

Bachelor
Spinster

Schoolmaster

28
27

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
10 years

At the house of H. Ranwell, Invercargill

80/742

1 March 1880

Rev. J. G. Paterson

No	18
Date of Notice	1 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bennett	Eleanor Thomson Ingram
	💍 1880/1346
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Schoolmaster
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	At the house of H. Ranwell, Invercargill
Folio	80/742
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Paterson

6 March 1880

James Murdoch
Sarah Birchall

James Murdoch
Sarah Annie Birchall
💍 1880/1173

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher

36
32

Clifton
Woodend

5 years
1 year

At the house of Wm. Birchall, Woodeng

80/682

6 March 1880

Rev. C E Ward

No	19
Date of Notice	6 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Murdoch	Sarah Birchall
BDM Match (85%)	James Murdoch	Sarah Annie Birchall
	💍 1880/1173
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Clifton	Woodend
Length of Residence	5 years	1 year
Marriage Place	At the house of Wm. Birchall, Woodeng
Folio	80/682
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C E Ward

8 March 1880

Alfred Thomas Holmes
Helen Jane Norris

Alfred Thomas Holmes
Helen Jane Norris
💍 1880/1134

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer
Dressmaker

27
18

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 years
5 years

At the Church of England Invercargill

80/583

Henry Frederick Norris, father

8 March 1880

Rev. W. P. Tanner

No	20
Date of Notice	8 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Thomas Holmes	Helen Jane Norris
	💍 1880/1134
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer	Dressmaker
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	At the Church of England Invercargill
Folio	80/583
Consent	Henry Frederick Norris, father
Date of Certificate	8 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. P. Tanner

9 March 1880

John Mann
Mary Ann Merrie

John Mann
Mary Ann Murie
💍 1880/1347

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

28
16

Clifton
Clifton

2 years
16 years

At the house of Jas. G. Paterson, Invercargill

80/743

Mary Ann Merrie, mother

9 March 1880

Rev. Jas G. Paterson

No	21
Date of Notice	9 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Mann	Mary Ann Merrie
BDM Match (93%)	John Mann	Mary Ann Murie
	💍 1880/1347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	28	16
Dwelling Place	Clifton	Clifton
Length of Residence	2 years	16 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Jas. G. Paterson, Invercargill
Folio	80/743
Consent	Mary Ann Merrie, mother
Date of Certificate	9 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas G. Paterson

10 March 1880

Henry Watson
Annie Egan

Henry Watson
Annie Egan
💍 1880/1033

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

28
26

Invercargill
Invercargill

1 year
10 years

At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill

80/572

10 March 1880

Arthur C Henderson Registrar

No	22
Date of Notice	10 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Watson	Annie Egan
	💍 1880/1033
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 year	10 years
Marriage Place	At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill
Folio	80/572
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Arthur C Henderson Registrar

11 March 1880

John Pugh Evans
Mary Stevens

John Pugh Evens
Mary Stevens
💍 1880/1040

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Servant

36
35

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the house of Rev. Mr Bunn, Invercargill

80/579

11 March 1880

Rev. Mr Bunn

No	23
Date of Notice	11 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Pugh Evans	Mary Stevens
BDM Match (97%)	John Pugh Evens	Mary Stevens
	💍 1880/1040
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Servant
Age	36	35
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of Rev. Mr Bunn, Invercargill
Folio	80/579
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Mr Bunn

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).