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 376

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1890

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
9	31 January 1890	Joseph Wilson Amy Helen Mitchell	Joseph Wilson Amy Helen Mitchell 💍 1890/668	Bachelor Spinster	accountant	23 22	Invercargill Kennington	9 years 8 years	House of W. H. Mitchell	90/786	31 January 1890	Rev John Ferguson
10	4 February 1890	George Bentley Styles Hannah Lauchbury	George Bentley Styles Hannah Lainchbury 💍 1890/3605	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 23	Invercargill Clifton	3 days 10 years	House of Capt. Robb Spears	90/797	4 February 1890	Major Hammond
11	11 February 1890	William James Moody Sarah Ann Price	William Jason Moody Sarah Ann Price 💍 1890/3603	Widower Spinster	Fishcurer	42 26	Invercargill Invercargill	10 years 5 days	House of A. Packman	90/791	11 February 1890	Rev Geo Lindsay
12	12 February 1890	Andrew Leator Janet Lockerbie	Andrew Seaton Janet Kilpatrick Lockerlie 💍 1890/669	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	22 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 5 days	House of Rev John Ferguson	90/787	12 February 1890	Rev John Ferguson
13	13 February 1890	James Forde Mary Murphy	James Forde Mary Murphy 💍 1890/765 James McLeavey Mary Murphy 💍 1890/2998	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Mabel Bush Grove Bush	15 years 25 years	Roman Catholic Church	90/867	13 February 1890	Rev J. Murphy
14	14 February 1890	Edward Prendergast Bridget Joyce	Edward Prendergast Bridget Joyce 💍 1890/770	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	38 29	Invercargill Invercargill	1 week 1 week	Roman Catholic Church	90/868	14 February 1890	Rev J. Murphy
15	19 February 1890	James Dickson Liewright Jessie Eue Callum	James Dickson Sievwright Jessie McCallum 💍 1890/670	Bachelor Spinster	Reporter	26 22	Invercargill East Invercargill	3 days 22 years	House of Mr A. Eue Callum	90/788	19 February 1890	Rev John Ferguson
16	21 February 1890	Clarence John Cuff Annie Fraser	Clarence John Cuff Annie Fraser 💍 1890/671	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	29 23	Invercargill Invercargill	4 months 6 months	House of Rev John Ferguson	90/789	21 February 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 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).