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 879

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 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
115	15 December 1897	William Anderson Edith Ellen Cowley	William Anderson Edith Ellen Cowley 💍 1897/2985	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 27	Invercargill Invercargill	18 months 27 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Tay Street	97/4441		15 December 1897	Staff Capt. J. Bennetts
116	17 December 1897	James Wilson Ronald Euphemia Barrie Jenkins	James Wilson Ronald Euphemia Bain Jenkins 💍 1897/3175	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	Invercargill Wallacetown	3 days 24 years	House of Mr. John Jenkins, Wallacetown	97/4682		17 December 1897	Rev. Wm. White
117	18 December 1897	Samuel Allan Elizabeth Somerville Young	Samuel Allan Elizabeth Somerville Young 💍 1897/3014	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	30 20	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 20 years	House of Mr. John Young, Appleby	97/4454	John Young, father	18 December 1897	Rev. J. W. Hayward
118	18 December 1897	Thomas Fisher Winifred Frances Hauman	Thomas Fisher Maria Frank 💍 1898/589	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 29	Invercargill Invercargill	29 years 29 years	St. Mary's Church, Clyde Street	97/4619		18 December 1897	Rev. Wm. Burke
119	20 December 1897	Alexander Stevens Ellen Thomson	Alexander Stevens Ellen Thomson 💍 1897/3176	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 20	Ryal Bush Ryal Bush	7 years 20 years	Presbyterian Church, Wallacetown	97/4683	Francis Thomson, father	20 December 1897	Rev. Wm. White
120	20 December 1897	William Henry Instramara Jane Young	William Henry McNamara Jane Young 💍 1897/2989	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 22	Seaward Bush, South Invercargill Seaward Bush, South Invercargill	11 months 22 years	Office of the Registrar, Invercargill	97/4445		20 December 1897	J. L. Bush, Registrar
121	23 December 1897	Donald McPherson Catherine Holland	Donald McPherson Catherine Holland 💍 1897/2990	Widower Spinster	Farmer	50 22	Invercargill Invercargill	14 days 22 years	Office of the Registrar, Invercargill	97/4446		23 December 1897	J. L. Bush, Registrar

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).