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 445

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar [illegible]

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
98	29 July 1899	Charles Clarke Margaret Amelia Turner	Charles Clarke Margaret Amelia Turner 💍 1899/3775	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 22	Seaward Bush, Invercargill Seaward Bush, Invercargill	3 years 11 years	House of Mr Benjamin Turner, Seaward Bush	99/3763		29 July 1899	Rev J. A. Pybus
99	7 August 1899	Alexander Cowie Frances Emma Stevens	Alexander Cowie Francis Emma Stevens 💍 1899/4459	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk	22 23	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 9 months	House of Mr G. S. Stevens, Liddel St.	99/3996		7 August 1899	Rev J. Gibson Smith
100	11 August 1899	Samuel Tupps Hazlett Elizabeth Stewart	Samuel Dripps Hazlett Elizabeth Stewart 💍 1899/3784	Widower Spinster	Farmer	39 29	Hillend, Winton Invercargill	20 years 3 days	House of Mr John Stewart	99/3766		11 August 1899	Rev J. H. Lyons
101	14 August 1899	James Angus Annie Isabella Kingland	James Angus Annie Isabella Kingsland 💍 1899/3782	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 20	Clifton Clifton	14 years 16 years	House of Mr H. C. Kingland	99/3764	Harman Collins, Father	14 August 1899	Rev J. A. Pybus
102	21 August 1899	Hugh Patrick Joseph Culling Honora O'Grady	Hugh Patrick Joseph Culling Honora O'Grady 💍 1899/3788	Bachelor Spinster	Pastry Cook	25 23	Invercargill Invercargill	8 months 1 month	St. Mary's Church, Clyde St.	99/3770		21 August 1899	Rev Wm. Burke
103	28 August 1899	John Yeoman Sammons Clara Quills	John Yeoman Sammons Clara Mills 💍 1899/3785	Widower Widow	Railway Guard	55 48	Invercargill Invercargill	28 years 28 years	House of Mrs Clara Quills, Bay St.	99/3767		28 August 1899	Rev J. H. Lyons
104	2 September 1899	Ernest Victor Quills Emma Rash	Ernest Victor Mills Emma Nash 💍 1899/5421	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 18	Invercargill Invercargill	7 years 8 years	St. John's Church, Bay St.	99/3760	Richard George Rash, father	2 September 1899	Archdeacon Stacker
105	5 September 1899	Alexander Anderson Gellatly Sarah Gray Inklys	Alexander Anderson Gellatly Sarah May Wilkins 💍 1899/4460	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	30 23	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 10 years	House of Mr W. C. Wilkins, Appleby	99/3997		5 September 1899	Rev J. Gibson Smith

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).