Intentions to Marry, 1896 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840410, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 11 2025

1896 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 403

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1896

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
77	1 July 1896	John Laurence Sullivan Kate Blackmore	John Lawrence Sullivan Kate Blackmore 💍 1896/2376	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk	24 23	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 14 years	Office of the Registrar	96/3248		1 July 1896	J. W. Wilkin, Registrar
78	3 July 1896	Andrew Gunson Eliza Gunson	Andrew Tinnock Eliza Evenson 💍 1896/2372	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 22	Woodend Woodend	16 years 14 years	House of John Gunson, Woodend	96/3267		3 July 1896	Rev. J. Gibson Smith
79	6 July 1896	Edward William Thomas Spencer Annie Josephine Bruce	Edward William Thomas Spencer Annie Josephine Vincent 💍 1896/2363	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand	23 22	Isabel Bush Isabel Bush	5 months 14 years	House of Peter Vincent, Isabel Bush	96/3258		6 July 1896	Rev. F. S. Bassett
80	7 July 1896	Owen King Mary O'Neill	Owen King Mary ONeill 💍 1896/2373	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	32 33	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 10 years	St. Mary's Church, Clyde Street	96/3268		7 July 1896	Rev. Nicholas Berekley
81	7 July 1896	Andrew Hall Margaret Amelie Smillie	Andrew Hall Margaret Smellie 💍 1896/2341	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Invercargill Bracholm	3 days 2 months	House of W. Smillie, Bracholm	96/3283		7 July 1896	Rev. W. White
82	13 July 1896	James Alexander Law Charlotte Blomfield Macdonald	James Alexander Law Charlotte Blomfield Macdonald 💍 1896/2352	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	35 33	Dunedin Invercargill	25 years 33 years	House of Thos. B. Macdonald, Invercargill	96/3293		13 July 1896	Rev. J. Gibson Smith
83	16 July 1896	Robert Campbell Margaret Love Cranes	Robert Campbell Margaret Lou Craies 💍 1896/3650	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	24 20	Woodend Invercargill	20 years 20 years	House of W. D. Cranes, Caiman Street	96/1478	father	16 July 1896	Rev. W. Woollass

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).