Intentions to Marry, 1898 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840414, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 27 2025

1898 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 902

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1888

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
121	17 October 1898	Marshall Crawford Stewart Christian Matheson Sutherland	Marshall Crawford Stewart Christina Matherson Sutherland 💍 1898/4895	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Shunter	26 21	Invercargill Menzies Ferry, Wyndham	6 days 12 years	House of Mrs John Sutherland	98/4820		17 October 1898	Rev J. Guy
122	22 October 1898	John Alexander Johnston Mary Anderson	John Alexander Johnston Mary Anderson 💍 1898/3482 John James McLachlan Marie Anderson 💍 1898/4509	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 19	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	House of Mr D. Strang, Don Street	98/4808	David Anderson, Father	22 October 1898	Rev J. Gibson Smith
123	24 October 1898	Philip Panapana Ryan Louisa Adelaide Jane Spencer	Philip Panapana Ryan Louisa Adelaide Jane Spencer 💍 1898/4867	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 31	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar	98/4788		24 October 1898	J. L. Bush, Registrar
124	25 October 1898	John Waugh Mary Isabel Thomson	John Waugh Mary Isabel Thomson 💍 1898/3483	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	26 26	Invercargill Invercargill	6 years 6 years	House of Mr John Thomson, Tay Street	98/4809		25 October 1898	Rev J. Gibson Smith
125	1 November 1898	John Thomas Buxton Anna Jane Atkinson	John Thomas Morton Anna Jane Atkinson 💍 1898/3496	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Invercargill East Invercargill	15 months 10 years	House of Mrs Sarah Jane Atkinson	98/4798		1 November 1898	Rev D. C. Bates
126	4 November 1898	Peter Cruickshank Sophia James McRobie	Peter Cruickshanks Sophia Jane McRobie 💍 1898/4896	Bachelor Spinster	Manager, Trust Coy. Dressmaker	33 24	North Invercargill Invercargill	20 years 15 years	House of Mrs Sarah McRobie, Don Street	98/4821		4 November 1898	Major Bennett

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).