Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 1533

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1889

No	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
92	30 November 1889	Harry King Mary Ann Walsh	Harry King Mary Ann Watts 💍 1889/3437	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 18	Waimahaka West Plains	3 months 10 years	Office of the Registrar	89/3511	James Walsh, father	30 November 1889	J. W. Wilkin, Registrar
93	30 November 1889	James Johnston Ellen Grant	James Johnston Ellen Grant Macdonell 💍 1889/3430	Bachelor Spinster	Presbyterian Minister	36 27	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Home of Rev Geo Lindsay	89/3505		30 November 1889	Rev Geo Lindsay
94	14 December 1889	William Burnham Goldsby Elizabeth Walker	William Burnham Goldsby Elizabeth Walker 💍 1889/3443	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	33 31	Otarara Bush North Invercargill	5 months 3 weeks	House of Mrs Walker, Leith Street, North Invercargill	89/3494		14 December 1889	Rev A. H. Stobo
95	14 December 1889	Joseph Sweeney Ann Hagar		Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	24 28	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 2 months	House of Mr H. Small, Jedburgh	89/3503		14 December 1889	Rev G. W. Leith
96	14 December 1889	Andrew Healop Mary Louisa Walsh	Andrew Hislop Mary Louisa Walsh 💍 1889/3414	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 22	Invercargill Invercargill	4 years 5 years	House of Rev John Ferguson	89/3488		14 December 1889	Rev John Ferguson
97	14 December 1889	Thomas Hudson Aitken Beatrice Hart	Thomas Hudson Aitken Emily Beatrice Hart 💍 1889/3431	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	22 24	Invercargill Avenal	12 years 19 years	Presbyterian Church, Otautau, Strathairn	89/3506		14 December 1889	Rev Thos H. Lyons
98	14 December 1889	Thomas Aitken Isabella Horton	Thomas Aitken Isabella Morton 💍 1889/3429	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 26	Otauramika Gorge Invercargill	3 days 14 years	House of Mrs Horton	89/3504		14 December 1889	Rev Hugh Kelly
99	19 December 1889	Percy Harper Cox Jessie McCulloch	Percy Harper Cox Jessie McCulloch 💍 1889/3426	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Accountant	25 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 21 years	English Church, Tay Street	89/3501		19 December 1889	Ven Archdeacon Stocker

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).