Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 015

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1892

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
102	5 December 1892	John Dennis Lyons Elizabeth Martin	John Dennis Lyons Elizabeth Martin 💍 1892/3637	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 22	Bluff Road Georgetown	22 years 17 years	House of Rev W. Boys	92/3900	5 December 1892	Rev W. Boys
103	9 December 1892	John Peter Buyers Emmie Westbury	John Peter Myers Minnie Westbury 💍 1892/3620	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	23 19	Waikivi Waikivi	23 years 2 years	Office of the Registrar	92/3902	9 December 1892	J. W. Wilkin, Registrar
104	13 December 1892	Charles Edward Bryce Bertha Rogers	Charles Edward Bryce Bertha Rogers 💍 1892/3722	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Teller	22 21	Riverton Invercargill	4 months 15 years	House of Rev Josiah Rogers	92/3872	13 December 1892	Rev Robt Taylor
105	19 December 1892	John Hayes Pay Agnes Margaret Rickay	John Hayes Pay Agnes Margaret McKay 💍 1892/3618	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	28 27	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 27 years	House of Rev J. R. Rickay, Esk Street	92/3892	19 December 1892	Rev Jas Standring
106	20 December 1892	George Tod Alice Willow Blackley McCallum	George Tod Alice Wilcox Blackley McCallum 💍 1892/3636	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	34 29	Gore Woodstock	3 years 2 years	House of Rev Robt McCallum, Woodstock	92/3899	20 December 1892	Rev Hugh Kelly
107	22 December 1892	Henry William Boyer Agnes Gilmore Petrie	Henry William Boyer Agnes Gilmor Petrie 💍 1892/3716	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 24	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 24 years	House of Rev G. Lindsay	92/3889	22 December 1892	Rev G. Lindsay
108	22 December 1892	Joseph John Hiskens Caroline Elizabeth Borne	Joseph John Hiskens Caroline Elizabeth Dorne 💍 1892/3634	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 24	Invercargill Invercargill	2 1/2 years 24 years	Church of England, Tay Street	92/3897	22 December 1892	Ven Archdeacon Stocker

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).