Intentions to Marry, 1897 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840412, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 25 2025

1897 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 401

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1897

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
68	7 August 1897	James Crapper Isabella Little	James Crapper Isabella Liddell 💍 1897/137	Widower Widow	Layman	51 38	Invercargill Invercargill	22 years 3 years	House of Rev. G. Baird, Dee Street, Invercargill	97/3570		7 August 1897	Rev. J. Ebon Smith
69	14 August 1897	Robert Harvey Bertha Entzgenetz	Robert Harvey Bertha Gutzewitz 💍 1897/3534	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner	23 18	Invercargill Invercargill	15 years 18 years	House of Mr. S. Entzgenetz, Grey Street, North Invercargill	97/3525	Ferdinand Entzgenetz, father	14 August 1897	Rev. James Guy
70	18 August 1897	Thomas Robert Murray Rathie Margaret Gilchrist	Thomas Robert Murray Rankin Margaret Gilchrist 💍 1897/2273	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	30 25	Invercargill Thornbury	10 years 10 years	House of Mr. D. Gilchrist, Thornbury, Riverton	97/3528		18 August 1897	Rev. Alex. Macdonald
71	23 August 1897	Arthur Sydney Audry Bessie Janet Campbell	Arthur Sydney Audry Bessie Just Campbell 💍 1897/2288	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 4 months	St. John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	97/3520		23 August 1897	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker
72	23 August 1897	Thomas Brown Agnes Isabella Brown	Thomas Brown Agnes Isabella Brown 💍 1897/138	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	31 23	Invercargill Invercargill	6 years 3 years	House of Mr. Walter Brown, Tay Street, Invercargill	97/3511		23 August 1897	Rev. J. Ebon Smith
73	27 August 1897	Albert William Betteridge Mary Crowther	Albert William Betteridge Mary Crowther 💍 1897/2289	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	26 23	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 7 years	St. John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	97/3521		27 August 1897	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker
74	4 September 1897	Daniel Ogilvie Isabella Harding	Daniel Ogilvie Isabella Harding 💍 1897/2272	Bachelor Spinster	Trollyman	23 18	Ruabel Bush Ruabel Bush	15 years 13 years	Presbyterian Church, Ruabel Bush, Invercargill	97/3527	Charles Harding, father	4 September 1897	Rev. Francis Bissett

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).