Intentions to Marry, 1900 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840418, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 12 2025

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

Page 1021

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1900 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
119	12 November 1900	Charles William Hairweather Mary Ann Henderson	Charles William Fairweather Mary Ann Henderson 💍 1900/5179 Francis Joseph Withers Mary Ann Henderson 💍 1900/2465	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	22 24	Inyross Bush Inyross Bush	22 years 24 years	House of Mrs Catherine Smith Henderson	00/5448	12 November 1900	Rev J Cumming
120	13 November 1900	William James Dunn Elizabeth Rose Francis	William James Dean Elizabeth Rose Francis 💍 1900/5315	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 23	Invercargill Invercargill	21 years 23 years	House of Rev J. H. Jones, Boyd Street	00/5465	13 November 1900	Rev J. H. Jones
121	14 November 1900	James Stuart Hannah Mary Anderson McLeod	James Ewart Hannah Mary Anderson McLeod 💍 1900/5300	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	34 25	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 25 years	House of Rev W. W. White, Leet Street	00/5472	14 November 1900	Rev W. W. White
122	15 November 1900	Frederick Charles Osborne Sarah Blanche Charlotte	Frederick Charles Osborne Sarah Blanche Charlett 💍 1900/5176	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	28 28	Invercargill Invercargill	6 weeks 3 days	St John's Church, Tay Street	00/5446	15 November 1900	Rev Archdeacon Stocker
123	19 November 1900	William Rhodes Clough Caroline Wilhelmina Catherine Beatt	William Rhodes Clough Carolina Wilhemina Catherine Beatt 💍 1900/5314 William James Clough Carolina Wilhelmina Catherine Beatt 💍 1901/783	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 25	Invercargill Invercargill	12 months 7 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Tay Street	00/5464	19 November 1900	Major Jonah Evans
124	23 November 1900	George Elliott Jane Gregoring	George Elliott Jane Tregoning 💍 1900/5186	Widower Widow	Platelayer	26 28	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 28 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages	00/5492	23 November 1900	J. L. Bush, Registrar
125	24 November 1900	Alexander Lowrie Frances Harriet Amelia Kennard	Alexander Lowrie Frances Harriette Amelia Kennard 💍 1900/5170	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	28 26	Invercargill Waianawa	4 years 16 years	First Church, Tay Street	00/5440	24 November 1900	Rev J Gibson Smith
126	28 November 1900	Paul Rogers Lea Sue Quarrie M. N. Hemmingsen	Paul Rogers Lea McQuarrie 💍 1900/5187	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	29 23	Tisbury Tisbury	14 years 11 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages	00/5433	28 November 1900	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).