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 403

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1898

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
85	14 July 1898	David Glance Scott Betsy Calder	David Flause Scott Betsy Calder 💍 1898/3941	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver	22 25	Wallacetown Bluff	16 years 10 years	House of Mr James Calder, Bluff	98/3331		14 July 1898	Rev W. G. McLaren
86	14 July 1898	Brashin Brogan Kate O'Connor	Martin Brogan Kate OConnor 💍 1898/3136	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 27	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 6 years	St. Andrew's Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill	98/3458		14 July 1898	Rev Wm Burke
87	18 July 1898	James Smith Ann Johnston	James Smith Ann Johnston 💍 1898/3149	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 27	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	St. Paul's Manse, Kelvin St, Invercargill	98/3449		18 July 1898	Rev Geo Lindsay
88	18 July 1898	Alexander Copland Elizabeth Mackenzie	Alexander Copland Elizabeth McKenzie 💍 1898/3985	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 20	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 20 years	Office of the Registrar, Invercargill	98/3427	Alexander Mackenzie, Father	18 July 1898	J. L. Bush, Registrar
89	19 July 1898	John Beck Agnes Victoria Nicholson	John Beck Agnes Victoria Nicholson 💍 1898/3150	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 2 weeks	St. Paul's Manse, Kelvin St, Invercargill	98/3450		19 July 1898	Rev Geo Lindsay
90	22 July 1898	George Heads Helen Leppert	George Heads Helen Le Petit 💍 1898/3151	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Proprietor	30 25	Invercargill Invercargill	15 months 15 years	House of Mr Thomas Chambers, Invercargill	98/3451		22 July 1898	Rev Geo Lindsay
91	27 July 1898	David Alexander Isabel Kelso	David Alexander Stewart Mabel Kelso 💍 1898/3137	Bachelor Spinster	Pastry Cook	22 20	Invercargill Invercargill	22 years 3 years	House of Mr D. A. Stewart, Clyde Street, Invercargill	98/3459		11 August 1898	Rev Wm Burke

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).