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 1080

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

11 March 1880

Alfred Challis
Mary Ann Houston

Alfred Challis
Mary Ann Houston
💍 1880/1141

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

26
24

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
2 years

At the Church of England Invercargill

80/584

11 March 1880

Rev. W. P. Tanner

No	24
Date of Notice	11 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Challis	Mary Ann Houston
	💍 1880/1141
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	At the Church of England Invercargill
Folio	80/584
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. P. Tanner

16 March 1880

James Paterson
Sarah Hannan

James Paterson
Sarah Hanan
💍 1880/1348

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Foreman
Domestic Servant

25
17

Gore
Woodlands

15 months
17 years

At the house of Rev. James Paterson, Invercargill

80/744

Kate Collins Brown, mother

16 March 1880

Rev. James Paterson

No	25
Date of Notice	16 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Paterson	Sarah Hannan
BDM Match (96%)	James Paterson	Sarah Hanan
	💍 1880/1348
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Foreman	Domestic Servant
Age	25	17
Dwelling Place	Gore	Woodlands
Length of Residence	15 months	17 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Rev. James Paterson, Invercargill
Folio	80/744
Consent	Kate Collins Brown, mother
Date of Certificate	16 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paterson

17 March 1880

Neil Frederickson
Emily Croad
formerly Godfrey

Neil Frederickson
Emily Croad
💍 1880/1034

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer

21
29

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill

80/573

17 March 1880

Arthur C. Henderson Registrar

No	26
Date of Notice	17 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Neil Frederickson	Emily Croad formerly Godfrey
	💍 1880/1034
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	29
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill
Folio	80/573
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Arthur C. Henderson Registrar

19 March 1880

David Charles Cameron
Mary Ann Graves
formerly Smith

David Charles Cameron
Mary Ann Graves
💍 1880/639

Widower
Widow

Labourer
Laundress

41
48

Invercargill
Invercargill

1 year
2 months

At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill

80/574

19 March 1880

Arthur C Henderson Registrar

No	27
Date of Notice	19 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Charles Cameron	Mary Ann Graves formerly Smith
	💍 1880/639
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Laundress
Age	41	48
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 year	2 months
Marriage Place	At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill
Folio	80/574
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Arthur C Henderson Registrar

20 March 1880

Frederick Hill
Helen Ann Pankhurst

Frederick Hill
Hellen Anne Parkhurst
💍 1880/1349

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

35
28

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 months

At the house of Frank Henderson Invercargill

80/745

20 March 1880

Rev. James Paterson

No	28
Date of Notice	20 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Hill	Helen Ann Pankhurst
BDM Match (93%)	Frederick Hill	Hellen Anne Parkhurst
	💍 1880/1349
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Frank Henderson Invercargill
Folio	80/745
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paterson

22 March 1880

John Haslin
Heslin - written above in pencil.
Annie Cavanagh

John Heslin
Annie Cavanagh
💍 1880/1142

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

2 years
4 years

At the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill

80/585

22 March 1880

Rev. Thomas Higgins

No	29
Date of Notice	22 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Haslin Heslin - written above in pencil.	Annie Cavanagh
BDM Match (95%)	John Heslin	Annie Cavanagh
	💍 1880/1142
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 years	4 years
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill
Folio	80/585
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Higgins

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).