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 875

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
87	2 October 1897	James Sloan Fraser Harriet Patchett	James Sloan Fraser Harriet Patchett 💍 1897/2999	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	23 21	Waikivi Invercargill	23 years 21 years	St Johns Church, Tay Street	97/4436		2 October 1897	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
88	5 October 1897	Charles James Edward Rutherford Sarah Anna Bates Catherall	Charles James Edward Sutherland Sarah Ann Bales Catherall 💍 1897/3169	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder	25 23	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 23 years	2nd Presbyterian Church, Dee Street	97/4676		5 October 1897	Rev Geo Lindsay
89	6 October 1897	William Jones Irene Bird	William Jones Virtue Bird 💍 1897/3246	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 21 years	House of Mr John Bird	97/4778		6 October 1897	Rev J Guy
90	7 October 1897	John Knowles Amy Ellen Phillips	John Knowles Amy Ellen Phillips 💍 1897/3012	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 22	Invercargill Invercargill	21 years 5 years	House of Mr J Shepherd	97/4452		7 October 1897	Rev J W Hayward
91	9 October 1897	Gavin Emanuel Amos Isabel Henrietta Dawson	Gavin Emanuel Amos Mabel Henrietta Dawson 💍 1897/3000	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 16	Inabel Bush Inabel Bush	21 years 3 years	House of Mr A W Dawson	97/4448	Arthur William Dawson, Father	9 October 1897	Rev Evan Bissett
92	19 October 1897	Malachi Hanley Jeannie Coakley	Malachi Hanley Nannie Coakley 💍 1897/3015	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 30	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 5 years	St Marys Church, Clyde Street	97/4455		18 October 1897	Rev J McGrath
93	21 October 1897	John Alexander Johnson Florence Annie Newsome	John Alexander Johnson Florence Annie Newsome 💍 1897/2986	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Woodend Invercargill	3 years 3 months	Office of the Registrar	97/4442		21 October 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).