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 402

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1897 Registrar John Logan Bush

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

6 September 1897

Charles Edmund Borne
Margaret Smith

Charles Edward Borne
Margaret Smith
💍 1897/139

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

27 years
21 years

House of Andrew Smith, Grace Street, Appleby

97/3512

6 September 1897

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	75
Date of Notice	6 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edmund Borne	Margaret Smith
BDM Match (93%)	Charles Edward Borne	Margaret Smith
	💍 1897/139
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	27 years	21 years
Marriage Place	House of Andrew Smith, Grace Street, Appleby
Folio	97/3512
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

6 September 1897

George Henry Crust
Jessie Hamilton Smith

George Henry Crust
Jessie Hamilton Smith
💍 1897/140

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
26

Invercargill
Invercargill

6 years
6 years

House of Andrew Smith, Grace Street, Appleby

97/3513

6 September 1897

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	76
Date of Notice	6 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Crust	Jessie Hamilton Smith
	💍 1897/140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	6 years	6 years
Marriage Place	House of Andrew Smith, Grace Street, Appleby
Folio	97/3513
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

7 September 1897

Jack Maynard Browning
Grace Fairlie Morton

Jack Maynard-Browning
Grace Fairlie Morton
💍 1897/141

Widower
Spinster

Ironmonger

37
25

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 days
25 years

First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill

97/3514

7 September 1897

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	77
Date of Notice	7 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jack Maynard Browning	Grace Fairlie Morton
BDM Match (98%)	Jack Maynard-Browning	Grace Fairlie Morton
	💍 1897/141
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	37	25
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 days	25 years
Marriage Place	First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	97/3514
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

11 September 1897

Edward James Crisp
Emily Smith

Edward James Crisp
Emily Smith
💍 1897/2271

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
20

South Invercargill
South Invercargill

23 years
12 years

House of George Smith, Sokurst

97/3520

George Smith, Father

11 September 1897

Rev. J. Guy

No	78
Date of Notice	11 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward James Crisp	Emily Smith
	💍 1897/2271
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	South Invercargill	South Invercargill
Length of Residence	23 years	12 years
Marriage Place	House of George Smith, Sokurst
Folio	97/3520
Consent	George Smith, Father
Date of Certificate	11 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Guy

13 September 1897

Ernest Joel Chapman
Emmeline Ruth Harrington

Ernest Joel Chapman
Emmeline Ruth Harrington
💍 1897/2270

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

30
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 years
3 days

First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill

97/3515

13 September 1897

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	79
Date of Notice	13 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Joel Chapman	Emmeline Ruth Harrington
	💍 1897/2270
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 years	3 days
Marriage Place	First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	97/3515
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

13 September 1897

Frank Dubrelle Monah
Frances Elsie Royse

Frank Bubrelle Morrah
Frances Elsie Royse
💍 1897/2248

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager

31
25

Morton Mains
Dunedin

2 years
23 years

All Saints Church, Dunedin

97/3476

13 September 1897

Very Rev. J. A. R. Fitchett

No	80
Date of Notice	13 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Dubrelle Monah	Frances Elsie Royse
BDM Match (93%)	Frank Bubrelle Morrah	Frances Elsie Royse
	💍 1897/2248
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Morton Mains	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	23 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Dunedin
Folio	97/3476
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. J. A. R. Fitchett

14 September 1897

Ernest William Barwell
Margaret Ann Scott

Earnest William Barwell
Margaret Ann Scott
💍 1897/132

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
27

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
2 years

House of John Scott, Tay Street, Invercargill

97/3506

14 September 1897

Rev. A. Poole

No	81
Date of Notice	14 September 1897
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest William Barwell	Margaret Ann Scott
BDM Match (98%)	Earnest William Barwell	Margaret Ann Scott
	💍 1897/132
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	House of John Scott, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	97/3506
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1897
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Poole

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 1903. 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).