Intentions to Marry, 1899 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840415, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington (now located in the National Library reading room), September 5 2025

1899 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 964

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar John Logan Bush

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
70	13 May 1899	Henry Swann Margaret Fernread Russell	Henry Swain Margaret Fernread Russell 💍 1899/2592	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic duties	18 17	Okramika Gorge Okramika Gorge	4 years 16 years	The Manse, First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	99/2539	Hodges Swann, Father of Agnes Russell	13 May 1899	Rev. G. Gibson Smith
71	18 May 1899	James Paterson Young Mary Zilla	James Paterson Young Mary Tibbs 💍 1899/2589 James Frederick Young Mary Allan 💍 1899/4813	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	64 39	Invercargill Invercargill	5 days 3 days	All Saints Church, Gladstone, Invercargill	99/2536		18 May 1899	Rev. D. C. Bates
72	20 May 1899	John Smith Fleming Phillis Mary Anderson	John Smith Fleming Phillis Mary Anderson 💍 1899/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 18	Tairi, Otago Wrights Bush	32 years 1 year	House of Mr. George Anderson, Wrights Bush, Outram	99/2542	George Anderson, Father	20 May 1899	Rev. D. O. Hampton
73	22 May 1899	William Terridale Margaret Ellen Kempton	William Teriotdale Margaret Ellen Kempton 💍 1899/2582	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	28 24	Gore Invercargill	4 years 14 years	St. John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill, Gore	99/2552		22 May 1899	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker
74	22 May 1899	John William Laucker Mary Cox	John William Lonnecker Mary Ann Cox 💍 1899/2584	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 22	Invercargill Invercargill	5 days 22 years	House of Mr. James Cox, North Invercargill	99/2554		22 May 1899	Rev. J. A. Lusford
75	23 May 1899	Richard Brown Mary Sheehan	Richard Brown Mary Sheehan 💍 1899/2575	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 28	Woodlands Invercargill	23 years 20 years	St. Mary's Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill	99/2546		23 May 1899	Rev. Wm. Burke
76	25 May 1899	Matthew Cross Mary Ann Cross (M. N. Williams)	Matthew Cross Mary Ann Cross 💍 1899/2555	Bachelor Divorced	Laborer	32 29	Invercargill Invercargill	4 months 24 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	99/2626		25 May 1899	J. L. Bush, Registrar
77	25 May 1899	John Sheehan Jessie Johnson	John Sheehan Jessie Johnson 💍 1899/2576	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	19 22	Invercargill Invercargill	18 years 1 year	St. Mary's Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill	99/2549	Norah Sheehan, Brother	25 May 1899	Rev. Wm. 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 1899. 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).