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 901

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1896 Registrar John Winstanley Wilkin

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
120	19 October 1896	Edward Bevan Jones Jane Barbour Jamieson	Edward Bevan Jones Jane Barbour Jamieson 💍 1896/3081	Widower Spinster	Chemist	44 29	Invercargill Gladstone	22 years 29 years	House of Mrs Janet Jamieson	96/4165		19 October 1896	Rev Henry Williams
121	19 October 1896	Thomas Steele Eliza Grace Moore	Thomas Steel Eliza Grace Moore 💍 1896/4805	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	38 34	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 3 days	House of Rev J. Black, Tweed Street	96/4167		19 October 1896	Rev George Lindsay
122	22 October 1896	Frederick West Baldey Agnes Wilson Crosbie	Frederick West Baldey Agnes Wilson Crosbie 💍 1896/168	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 24	Ryal Bush Ryal Bush	29 years 7 years	Presbyterian Church, Wallacetown	96/4174		22 October 1896	Rev Wm White
123	22 October 1896	John Albert Goodsir Kathleen McKeown	John Albert Goodsir Kathleen McKeown 💍 1896/3086	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 21	Invercargill Invercargill	6 months 6 months	House of Mr W. J. Goodsir, Egmont Street	96/4152		22 October 1896	Rev J. Gibson Smith
124	24 October 1896	George Dewe Lucy Maria Wyeth	George Dewe Lucy Maria Wyeth 💍 1896/3085	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 19	Woodlands Woodlands	13 years 19 years	House of Mr C. H. Wyeth, Woodlands	96/4170	Charles Henry Wyeth, father	24 October 1896	Rev Evan Bissett
125	26 October 1896	Charles Carley Eleanor Nicholl	Charles Carley Eleanor Nicholl 💍 1896/3092	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 32	Invercargill Invercargill	4 years 30 years	Baptist Manse, Leet Street	96/4155		26 October 1896	Rev P. W. Jones
126	2 November 1896	James Brown Greig Elizabeth Waymouth	James Brown Greig Elizabeth Weymouth 💍 1896/3199	Widower Spinster	Draughtsman	44 39	Invercargill Invercargill	34 years 18 years	St John's Church, Tay Street	96/4140		2 November 1896	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 1901. 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).