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 878

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
108	19 November 1897	William McKenzie Rose Anetta McDonald	William McKenzie Rose Annetta McDonald 💍 1897/3170	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 20	Invercargill Invercargill	26 years 3 years	House of Rev. Andrew McDonald, Spey Street	97/4677	Andrew McDonald, father	19 November 1897	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
109	22 November 1897	William Harvey Thomas Mary Elizabeth Jane Ide	William Harvey Thomas Mary Elizabeth Jane Ede 💍 1897/2983	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner	22 22	Invercargill Invercargill	6 weeks 3 days	St. John's Church, Tay Street	97/4439		22 November 1897	Rev. Archdeacon Stocker
110	29 November 1897	Albert Samuel Troggatt Beatrice Mary Barcoe	Albert Samuel Froggatt Beatrice Mary Varcoe 💍 1897/3226	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 29	Invercargill Invercargill	26 years 16 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Don Street	97/4779		29 November 1897	Rev. J. Guy
111	10 December 1897	Albert Ernest Brown Isabella Christie	Albert Ernest Brown Isabella Christie 💍 1897/3257	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 19	Invercargill Invercargill	23 years 19 years	House of Mr. Robert Christie, Avenal	97/4813	Robert Christie, father	10 December 1897	Rev. W. C. Oliver
112	13 December 1897	Frank Victor Raymond Kate Firth	Frank Victor Raymond Kate Firth 💍 1897/3046	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	30 21	Invercargill Queenstown	16 years 14 years	St. Peter's Church, Queenstown	97/4532		13 December 1897	Rev. A. D. Mitchell
113	14 December 1897	William Henry Inder Martha Jane Grenfell	William Henry Melvin Martha Jane Grenfell 💍 1897/3009	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 18	Long Bush Long Bush	5 years 14 years	House of Mr. John Grenfell	97/4449	John Grenfell, father	14 December 1897	Rev. Evan Bissett
114	15 December 1897	Michael Reidy Mary Ellen Leonard	Michael Reidy Mary Ellen Leonard 💍 1897/3002	Bachelor Spinster	Bridgeman, Railways	27 24	Invercargill Invercargill	14 years 4 days	St. Mary's Church, Clyde Street	97/4458		15 December 1897	Rev. W. Burke

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).