Intentions to Marry, 1900 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840417, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, September 12 2025

1900 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 1010

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar J. L. 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
40	16 April 1900	Henry Bevin Irena Crawford	Henry Bevin Mena Crawford 💍 1900/3380	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 22 years	House of Mr. John Crawford, Forth Street, Invercargill	00/2570	16 April 1900	Rev. Wm. Burke
41	16 April 1900	John Donald Jenkins Elizabeth Ann Crawford	John Donald Jenkins Elizabeth Ann Crawford 💍 1900/3379	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 24	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 24 years	House of Mr. John Crawford, Forth Street, Invercargill	00/2569	16 April 1900	Rev. Wm. Burke
42	14 April 1900	James Edward Jeffcoate Christina Leitch Munro	James Edward Jefcoate Christina Leitch Munro 💍 1900/2197	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	23 25	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 25 years	House of Mr. James Munro, Oteramika, Invercargill	00/3936	17 April 1900	Rev. A. Gray
43	17 April 1900	Hugh Bannock Dawson Rosina Wren	Hugh Tannock Dawson Rozina Wren 💍 1900/1576	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 27	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 7 years	St. John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	00/2593	17 April 1900	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker
44	18 April 1900	Daniel Cornelius Scottay Caroline Elizabeth Dale	Daniel Cornelius Scollay Caroline Elizabeth Dale 💍 1900/1623	Widower Spinster	Mariner Saleswoman	38 34	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 1 week	House of Mr. W. Cruickshank, Rosedale, Invercargill	00/2598	18 April 1900	Rev. D. C. Bates
45	19 April 1900	John Macalister Isabel Rose MacBride	John Macalister Mabel Rose McBride 💍 1900/1572	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	42 27	Invercargill Invercargill	25 years 5 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	00/2572	19 April 1900	J. L. Bush, Registrar
46	20 April 1900	Albert Nicholas Hall Marie Emily Blackwood	Albert Nicholas Hall Marie Emily Blackwood 💍 1900/1570	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	31 24	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 2 years	House of Mr. A. R. Hall, Elles Road, Invercargill	00/2588	20 April 1900	Rev. J. H. Lyon
47	30 April 1900	Eli Dewe Ella Rose	Eli Dewe Ella Rose 💍 1900/1577	Bachelor Spinster	Ordinary Labourer	32 31	Woodlands Invercargill	17 years 2 weeks	St. John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	00/2594	30 April 1900	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).