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 962

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
54	14 April 1899	Thomas Lock Elizabeth Johnston	Thomas Lock Elizabeth Johnston 💍 1899/2587	Bachelor Spinster	Baker & Confectioner	23 25	Invercargill Invercargill	19 years 25 years	St Paul's Church, Kelvin St	99/2557		14 April 1899	Rev C. S. Ross
55	18 April 1899	John Craig Annie Elizabeth Robinson	John Craig Annie Elizabeth Robinson 💍 1899/2590	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	28 19	Invercargill Oteramika	4 days 18 years	Robinson's Hall, Oteramika	99/2537	Charles Robinson, Father	18 April 1899	Rev J. Gibson Smith
56	19 April 1899	James Richard Richards Louisa Jane Smith	James Richard Richards Louisa Jane Smith 💍 1899/2583	Widower Spinster	Agricultural Chemist	53 28	Invercargill Invercargill	16 years 2 years	House of Andrew Dunlop, Avenal	99/2553		19 April 1899	Rev J. A. Luxford
57	20 April 1899	Donald Mackenzie Selina Jane Lawrens	Donald MacKenzie Selina Jane Laurens 💍 1899/2595	Bachelor Spinster	Grazier	30 20	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 1 month	St Paul's Church, Dee Street	99/2538	Geo Hugh Lawrens, Father	20 April 1899	Rev C. S. Ross
58	24 April 1899	Henry Dritchell Fowler Clara Dritchell	Henry Mitchell Fowler Clara Mitchell 💍 1899/2791	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 32	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 32 years	House of J. W. Dritchell, Leet St	99/2728		24 April 1899	Rev Jas Baird
59	25 April 1899	Charles Hughes Isabella Smith	Charles Hughes Isabella Smith 💍 1899/2553 Henry Walter Kersley Isabella Smith 💍 1900/607	Bachelor Spinster	Rathifer	40 26	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages	99/2524		25 April 1899	J. L. Bush, Registrar
60	26 April 1899	William John Henry Ada Margaret Caroline Brown	William John Henry Ada Margaret Caroline Brown 💍 1899/2573	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	21 20	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church, Clyde St	99/2544	Catherine Brown, Mother	26 April 1899	Rev W. Burke
61	28 April 1899	Edward Richard Blake Edith Georgiana Morgan	Edward Richard Blake Edith Georgiana Morgan 💍 1899/2579	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 39	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 21 years	St John's Church, Tay Street	99/2550		28 April 1899	Ven Archdeacon Stocker

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).