Intentions to Marry, 1890

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840402, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 1163

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1890 Registrar Wilkin

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
58	24 July 1890	Ewen Cameron Phoebe Bridge	Ewen Cameron Phoebe Bridge 💍 1890/3783	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 18	Invercargill Invercargill	22 years 9 years	Church of England, Tay St	90/2722	James Bridge, father	24 July 1890	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
59	25 July 1890	Richard Burton Margaret Storey	Richard Bunten Margaret Storey 💍 1890/1514	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	51 42	Invercargill Wairarapa	3 days 1 year	House of Rev C Griffen	90/2716		25 July 1890	Rev C Griffen
60	4 August 1890	Hugh McKerrow Clara Grace Rissetto	Hugh McKerrow Clara Grace Risetto 💍 1890/1517	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	24 23	Invercargill Otatara Bush	3 days 1 week	House of Rev T H Lyon	90/2729		4 August 1890	Rev T H Lyon
61	5 August 1890	William Fraser Isabella Smith	William Fraser Isabella Smith 💍 1890/1536	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 27	North Invercargill Invercargill	3 years 6 days	House of Mr & Mrs Fraser	90/2726		5 August 1890	Rev Geo Lindsay
62	5 August 1890	Henry Vincent Haddock Evelyn Brooks	Henry Vincent Haddock Evelyn Brooks 💍 1890/3793	Widower Spinster	Traveller	42 23	Invercargill Invercargill	10 years 4 years	St John's Church, Bay Street	90/2723		5 August 1890	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
63	11 August 1890	John Buchanan Hay Jemima Campbell	John Buchanan Hay Minnie Campbell 💍 1890/1524	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 24	Invercargill Woodend	8 years 12 years	House of Rev McKenzie, Esk Street	90/2736		11 August 1890	Rev John Ferguson
64	12 August 1890	William Willis Mary Drummond Cox	William Willis Mary Dunsmore Cox 💍 1890/1523	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	41 27	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 27 years	House of Rev John Ferguson	90/2735		12 August 1890	Rev John Ferguson
65	13 August 1890	William Duffan Christina Maxwell	William Meffan Christina Maxwell 💍 1890/1526	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	29 25	Clifton Clifton	8 years 2 months	House of Rev J Ferguson	90/2737		13 August 1890	Rev John Ferguson

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 1899. 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).