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 1534

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
100	18 December 1889	John Munckton Letitia Reason	John Ulrich Wurster Letitia Mason 💍 1889/3445	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	23 21	East Invercargill Invercargill	23 years 14 years	House of Rev. Jas. Guy	89/3496		18 December 1889	Rev. Jas. Guy
101	18 December 1889	Alexander Simpson Jane Mathilda Day	Alexander Simpson Jane Matilda Day 💍 1889/3424	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 23	Invercargill Invercargill	27 years 2 years	House of Rev. John Ferguson	89/3491		18 December 1889	Rev. John Ferguson
102	23 December 1889	Joseph Rodrigues Elizabeth Hart	Joseph Roderigues Elizabeth Hart 💍 1889/3438	Widower Spinster	Mariner	35 24	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 4 days	Office of the Registrar	89/3512		23 December 1889	J. L. Bush, Deputy Registrar
103	24 December 1889	Nathan Wood Emma Roff	Nathan Wood Emma Roff 💍 1889/3415	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 19	Hawthorn Clifton	8 years 12 years	House of Rev. John Ferguson	89/3489	Thos. Roff, Father	24 December 1889	Rev. John Ferguson
104	24 December 1889	Robert Easton Sarah Rice	Robert McMillan Sarah Rice 💍 1889/3435	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 20	Invercargill Invercargill	8 days 9 days	House of Rev. John Ferguson	89/3492	Hugh Rice, Father	24 December 1889	Rev. John Ferguson
105	24 December 1889	James William Hamilton Mary Crawford	James William Hamilton Mary Crawford 💍 1889/3416	Widower Spinster	Farmer	50 45	Thornbury Invercargill	25 years 6 days	House of Rev. Hugh Luair	89/3490	Rupert Lyle, Thornbury	24 December 1889	Rev. John Ferguson
106	27 December 1889	William John Bromley Annie Copley	William John Bromley Annie Copley 💍 1889/3439	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	37 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar	89/3513		27 December 1889	J. L. Bush, Deputy Registrar
107	24 December 1889	Joseph Armitage Mills Margareta Ann Hawke	Joseph Armitage Mills Margaret Ann Hawke 💍 1890/3606	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	30 20	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 16 years	House of Rev. Wm. Hawke	89/3798	William Hawke, Father	27 December 1889	Rev. H. W. Isitt

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).