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 969

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
147	18 December 1899	Harold George Cuthbertson Agnes Eva Moriah King	Harold George Cuthbertson Agnes McIlwraith King 💍 1899/5282	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Wyndham Invercargill	3 months 3 weeks	House of Rev. R. F. Cuthbertson, Gala Street, Invercargill	99/5429	18 December 1899	Rev. Gibson Smith
148	19 December 1899	John Somerville Young Helen Peterson	John Somerville Young Hellen Peterson 💍 1899/5109	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 27	Invercargill Invercargill	25 years 10 years	House of Rev. J. H. Lyon, North Invercargill	99/5089	19 December 1899	Rev. J. H. Lyon
149	19 December 1899	John Bird Bird Margaret Ida Anderson	John Bird Bird Margaret Ida Anderson 💍 1899/5117 John Greaves Margaret Anderson 💍 1899/4548	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	28 26	Otatara Bush Otatara Bush	16 years 20 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Otatara Bush	99/5090	19 December 1899	Rev. J. H. Lyon
150	19 December 1899	James Strang Ada Maitland Jones	James Strang Ada Maitland Jones 💍 1899/5106	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 24	Invercargill Invercargill	22 years 4 years	House of Mr. J. W. Jones, Leet Street, Invercargill	99/5083	19 December 1899	Rev. Allan Poole
151	21 December 1899	William Ambrose Cook Margaret Smart Ruthven	William Ambrose Cook Margaret Smart Methven 💍 1899/5274	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand	24 21	Clifton Clifton	16 years 9 years	Church of England, Clifton	99/5394	21 December 1899	Rev. H. J. C. Gilbert
152	21 December 1899	Jeremiah Johnson Grace Jane Ferguson	Jeremiah Johnson Grace Jane Georgeson 💍 1899/5113	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 22	Edendale North Invercargill	22 years 21 years	House of Haldon Ferguson, North Invercargill	99/5070	21 December 1899	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
153	22 December 1899	James Thomson Norah Agnes Mulhare	James Thomson Norah Agnes Mulhare 💍 1899/5107	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	22 23	Invercargill Invercargill	22 years 2 years	House of Mr. H. Macallister, Gladstone	99/5087	22 December 1899	Rev. Wm. Burke
154	22 December 1899	John Francis Carter Minnie Eliza Aram	John Francis Carter Minnie Eliza Oram 💍 1899/5283	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	28 24	Invercargill Invercargill	12 months 3 days	1st Church, Earnscleugh, Tay Street	99/5430	22 December 1899	Rev. Gibson Smith

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 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).