Intentions to Marry, 1899 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840416, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole 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 965

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
115	3 October 1899	John Charles Euackley Mary Jane Derby	John Charles MacKley Mary Jane Derbie 💍 1899/5092	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 25	Invercargill Invercargill	12 years 25 years	House of Mr Hugh Derby, Eglin Street, Invercargill	99/5065	3 October 1899	Rev Geo Lindsay
116	3 October 1899	Henry Charles Colyer Jessie McKenzie	Hendry Charles Colyer Jessie McKenzie 💍 1899/5103 Charles McLiver Jessie McKenzie 💍 1900/195	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	26 36	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	House of Mr James Crapper, Bourton Street, Invercargill	99/5066	3 October 1899	Rev Geo Lindsay
117	6 October 1899	Francis Watson McGill Elizabeth McCrathy	Francis Watson McGill Elizabeth McNatty 💍 1899/5273	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	30 21	Gladstone Gladstone	14 years 21 years	All Saints Church, Gladstone	99/5393	6 October 1899	Rev D. C. Bates
118	6 October 1899	Robert Miller Margaret Mackay	Robert Miller Margaret McNay 💍 1899/4100	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 30	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	99/5059	6 October 1899	J. L. Bush, Registrar
119	10 October 1899	Ernest Radford Mary Ann Christie	Ernest Radford Mary Ann Christie 💍 1899/5104	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	St Johns Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	99/5084	10 October 1899	Rev Archdeacon Stocker
120	16 October 1899	Ephraim Barbour McKay Annie Teresa Kirwan	Ephriam Barbour McKay Annie Teresa Kirwan 💍 1899/5115	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	30 26	Invercargill Invercargill	30 years 26 years	House of Mr John Kirwan, Leven Street, Invercargill	99/5072	16 October 1899	Rev Wm Burke
121	16 October 1899	Archibald Dick Jane Caskie McDonald	Archibald Dick Jane Caskie McDonald 💍 1899/5099	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 14 days	House of Rev T. A. Rybus, Elles Road, Invercargill	99/5080	16 October 1899	Rev T. A. Rybus
122	16 October 1899	William John Austen Annie Georgina	William John Austen Annie Tiopira 💍 1899/4101	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	31 31	Invercargill Invercargill	5 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	99/5060	16 October 1899	J. L. Bush, Registrar

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).