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 814

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
39	3 May 1892	Andrew Lee McCulloch Isabella Little	Andrew Lee McCulloch Isabella Little 💍 1892/1772	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 19	East Invercargill East Invercargill	21 years 19 years	House of Mrs Little	92/1896	Mary Little, mother	23 May 1892	Rev John Ferguson
40	27 May 1892	Alexander Charleson Mary Bowers	Alex Charleson Mary Bowers 💍 1892/1770	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 20	Invercargill Invercargill	5 days 6 months	House of Mr J. Bowers, Commercial Bank	92/1894	Stephen Bowers, father	27 May 1892	Rev George Lindsay
41	30 May 1892	Abraham Herbert Lyons Ellen Logan Brown	Abraham Herbert Lyons Ellen Logan Brown 💍 1892/3938	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 16	Clifton South Invercargill	8 years 16 years	House of Mr Gilbert Brown	92/1892	Gilbert Brown, father	30 May 1892	Rev. F. W. Boys
42	3 June 1892	Mark Summers Jane Provan	Mark Summers Jane Provan 💍 1892/1774	Widower Spinster	Engine Driver	39 37	Long Bush Invercargill	12 years 9 years	House of Mr J. L. [illegible]	92/1898		3 June 1892	Rev John Ferguson
43	4 June 1892	Mark Dumbleton Marie Anna Gohl	Mark Dumbleton Marie Anna Gohl 💍 1892/1718	Bachelor Spinster	Cheesemaker	25 22	Woodlands Woodlands	3 years 18 years	House of Mr J. S. Gohl	92/1912		4 June 1892	Rev Hugh Kelly
44	7 June 1892	James Henry Collett Ellen Barrie	James Henry Collett Ellen Barrie 💍 1892/1773	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	22 23	Long Bush Long Bush	8 years 5 years	House of Rev John Ferguson	92/1897		7 June 1892	Rev John Ferguson
45	7 June 1892	John Hinchey Sarah Elizabeth Macan	John Hinchey Sarah Elizabeth Macan 💍 1892/1696	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 25	Invercargill Makarewa	1 week 4 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	92/1904		7 June 1892	Rev Patrick O'Dea

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).