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 1569

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar John Winstanley Wilkie

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
82	4 November 1890	John Stewart Mary Ann Hunt	John Stewart Mary Ann Hunt 💍 1890/1774	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 22	Appleby Avenal	16 years 17 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Strathearn	90/3742		4 November 1890	Rev J. Guy
83	21 November 1890	Thomas Lockerbie Henrietta Thomson	Thomas Lockerbie Henrietta Thomson 💍 1890/3456	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	25 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 years	House of Rev John Ferguson	90/3728		21 November 1890	Rev John Ferguson
84	21 November 1890	Alexander Turner Margaret Sarah Ann Guills	Alexander Turner Margaret Sarah Ann Mills 💍 1890/1775 Alexander Turner Elizabeth Mary Anquetil 💍 1890/772	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	House of Rev Benjamin Turner	90/3743		21 November 1890	Rev J. Guy
85	22 November 1890	James Murphy Agnes Martin	James Murphy Agnes Martin 💍 1890/3457	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 19	Appleby, Okoramika Road Invercargill	10 years 7 years	House of Rev John Ferguson	90/3729	William Martin, father	22 November 1890	Rev John Ferguson
86	24 November 1890	James Herbert Chester Annie Ingram	James Herbert Chester Annie Ingram 💍 1890/3458	Bachelor Spinster	Goldminer	45 35	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 30 years	House of Rev H. Ramwell, Crombie St	90/3730		24 November 1890	Rev John Ferguson
87	26 November 1890	Charles William Reid Mary Elliott	Charles Williamsen Reid Mary Elliott 💍 1890/1790	Bachelor Spinster	Letter Carrier	24 23	Invercargill Invercargill	24 years 12 months	House of Rev James Standring, Tweed St	90/3737		26 November 1890	Rev James Standring
88	24 November 1890	Frederick Carlton Twentlow Elizabeth Johnston	Frederick Tarlton Twenlow Elizabeth Johnston 💍 1890/1783	Bachelor Spinster	Teller	24 23	Invercargill Invercargill	24 years 18 years	House of Rev J. Johnston, Leet St	90/3733		24 November 1890	Rev John Ferguson
89	27 November 1890	William Stott Margaret McCallum	William Stott Margaret McCallum 💍 1890/3459	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	21 19	Long Bush Eri Kohia	1 year 3 years	House of Rev Duncan Mc Kenzie, Spey St	90/3731	Malcolm Mc Callum, father	27 November 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).