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 1084

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1880 Registrar Arthur Chillas 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

2 April 1880

Archibald Sellars
Margaret Campbell Stevens

Archibald Sellars
Margaret Campbell Stevens
💍 1880/1957

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
24

Oteramika
Wallacetown

8 years
15 years

at the home of Andrew Stevens Wallacetown

80/1429

2 April 1880

Rev. T. Alexander Presbyterian Minister

No	34
Date of Notice	2 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Sellars	Margaret Campbell Stevens
	💍 1880/1957
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Oteramika	Wallacetown
Length of Residence	8 years	15 years
Marriage Place	at the home of Andrew Stevens Wallacetown
Folio	80/1429
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Alexander Presbyterian Minister

9 April 1880

George Frederick Mailman
Louisa Hunter

George Frederick Mailman
Louisa Hunter
💍 1880/1977

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Master

32
21

Makarewa
Invercargill

10 months
2 years

at the Church of England Invercargill

80/1425

9 April 1880

Revd W.P. Tanner Episcopalian Minister

No	35
Date of Notice	9 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Frederick Mailman	Louisa Hunter
	💍 1880/1977
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Master
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Makarewa	Invercargill
Length of Residence	10 months	2 years
Marriage Place	at the Church of England Invercargill
Folio	80/1425
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd W.P. Tanner Episcopalian Minister

15 April 1880

Patrick Hayes
Annie Horan

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

35
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

at the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill

15 April 1880

Rev Thomas Higgins Roman Catholic Minister

No	36
Date of Notice	15 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Hayes	Annie Horan
BDM Match (8%)
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	35	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	at the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Higgins Roman Catholic Minister

16 April 1880

James Baxter
Jane Wilkinson
formerly Gray

James Baxter
Jane Wilkinson
💍 1880/541

Widower
Widow

Gentleman

40
33

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 days
16 years

at the home of Mrs Wilkinson Leet St, Invercargill

80/2995

16 April 1880

Rev. Mr Bunn Wesleyan Minister

No	37
Date of Notice	16 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Baxter	Jane Wilkinson formerly Gray
	💍 1880/541
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Gentleman
Age	40	33
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 days	16 years
Marriage Place	at the home of Mrs Wilkinson Leet St, Invercargill
Folio	80/2995
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Mr Bunn Wesleyan Minister

21 April 1880

John Cornelius Harrington
Charlotte Elliott

John Cornelius Harrington
Charlotte Elliott
💍 1880/1961

Bachelor
Spinster

Actor
Actress

23
22

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

at the home of the Rev. C.E. Ward, Invercargill

80/1433

21 April 1880

Rev. C.E. Ward Primitive Methodist Minister

No	38
Date of Notice	21 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cornelius Harrington	Charlotte Elliott
	💍 1880/1961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Actor	Actress
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	at the home of the Rev. C.E. Ward, Invercargill
Folio	80/1433
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C.E. Ward Primitive Methodist Minister

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).