Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 1185

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1883

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

24 July 1883

Samuel Kneeland
Grace Branigan

Samuel Knilands
Grace Branigan
💍 1883/2588

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler
Servant

30
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar, Invercargill

83/2577

Robert Branigan, Father

24 July 1883

The Registrar, Invercargill

No	70
Date of Notice	24 July 1883
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Kneeland	Grace Branigan
BDM Match (90%)	Samuel Knilands	Grace Branigan
	💍 1883/2588
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler	Servant
Age	30	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar, Invercargill
Folio	83/2577
Consent	Robert Branigan, Father
Date of Certificate	24 July 1883
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Invercargill

24 July 1883

James McDonald
Margaret Saddler

James McDonald
Margaret Saddler
💍 1883/2589

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Servant

23
21

Longbush
Longbush

3 years
7 years

At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill

83/2578

24 July 1883

The Registrar, Invercargill

No	71
Date of Notice	24 July 1883
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McDonald	Margaret Saddler
	💍 1883/2589
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Servant
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Longbush	Longbush
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill
Folio	83/2578
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1883
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Invercargill

27 July 1883

James Kevern
Elizabeth Ann Densley

James Kevern
Elizabeth Ann Densley
💍 1883/2590

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

35
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

8 months
10 years

At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill

83/2579

George Densley, Father

27 July 1883

The Registrar, Invercargill

No	72
Date of Notice	27 July 1883
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Kevern	Elizabeth Ann Densley
	💍 1883/2590
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	35	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 months	10 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar, Invercargill
Folio	83/2579
Consent	George Densley, Father
Date of Certificate	27 July 1883
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Invercargill

27 July 1883

John Jackson
Lilly Fox

John Jackson
Lilly Fox
💍 1883/2579

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Servant

33
24

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 days
7 days

At the Church of England, Invercargill

83/2509

27 July 1883

Rev A Stocker, Church of England Minister

No	73
Date of Notice	27 July 1883
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Jackson	Lilly Fox
	💍 1883/2579
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Servant
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 days	7 days
Marriage Place	At the Church of England, Invercargill
Folio	83/2509
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1883
Officiating Minister	Rev A Stocker, Church of England Minister

6 August 1883

Manassey Wallshlegan
Catherine Sophia Nelson

Manassey Wallshleger
Catherine Sophia Nelson
💍 1883/2606

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

34
23

Invercargill
Stobbo, Invercargill

1 year
8 years

At the house of the Rev A S Stobbo, Invercargill

83/2574

6 August 1883

The Rev Andrew S Stobbo, Presbyterian Church Minister

No	74
Date of Notice	6 August 1883
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Manassey Wallshlegan	Catherine Sophia Nelson
BDM Match (95%)	Manassey Wallshleger	Catherine Sophia Nelson
	💍 1883/2606
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	34	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Stobbo, Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 year	8 years
Marriage Place	At the house of the Rev A S Stobbo, Invercargill
Folio	83/2574
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 August 1883
Officiating Minister	The Rev Andrew S Stobbo, Presbyterian Church Minister

8 August 1883

Thomas Budden Mead
Agnes Veint

Thomas Bullen Vincent
Agnes Veint
💍 1883/2618

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

33
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 years
19 years

At the house of the Rev I G Patterson, Invercargill

83/2527

John Veint, Guardian

8 August 1883

The Rev I G Patterson, Presbyterian Church Minister

No	75
Date of Notice	8 August 1883
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Budden Mead	Agnes Veint
BDM Match (81%)	Thomas Bullen Vincent	Agnes Veint
	💍 1883/2618
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	33	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 years	19 years
Marriage Place	At the house of the Rev I G Patterson, Invercargill
Folio	83/2527
Consent	John Veint, Guardian
Date of Certificate	8 August 1883
Officiating Minister	The Rev I G Patterson, Presbyterian Church Minister

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

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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).