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 463

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
73	20 July 1900	Alfred Stuck Alice Maud Mary Wilks	Alfred Stuck Alice Maud Mary Wilkes 💍 1900/2183	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 21	Rakahouka Southland Rupers Bush Southland	2 years 18 years	House of Mrs A. W. Pelhams Rupers Bush Southland	00/3946		28 July 1900	Rev J. Cummings
74	30 July 1900	John Wilson Brown Annie Eve Leay	John Wilson Brown Annie McLeay 💍 1900/2179	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 19	Invercargill Kennington Invercargill	3 days 19 years	House of Mr John Leay One Tree Hill Invercargill	00/3942	John Leay, Father	30 July 1900	Rev Ivan Bessett
75	1 August 1900	Frank Eugene Booth Louisa Willett	Frank Eugene Booth Louisa Willett 💍 1900/2200	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	26 25	Invercargill Invercargill	4 years 25 years	St Johns Church Day Street Invercargill	00/3939		1 August 1900	Rev Archdeacon Stocker
76	2 August 1900	William Elijah Woodward Catherine Ann Hall	William Elijah Woodward Catherine Hall 💍 1900/2198	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 20	Clifton Clifton	17 years 10 years	House of Mrs Catherine Hall Clifton Invercargill	00/3937	Catherine Hall, Brother	2 August 1900	Rev J. A. Paybus
77	7 August 1900	Arthur Kitson Grahilda Cross	Arthur Kitson Matilda Cross 💍 1900/2167	Bachelor Spinster	Sea farer	26 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages Invercargill	00/3929		7 August 1900	J. L. Bush, Registrar
78	14 August 1900	William Grant Martha Lind	William Grant Martha Lind 💍 1900/2184	Bachelor Spinster	Manager, Dairy Factory	29 28	Invercargill Hokarewa Invercargill	5 days 28 years	House of Mr William Lind Hokarewa Invercargill	00/3947		14 August 1900	Rev J. Cummings
79	24 August 1900	Lewis William Brown Annie Arthur	Lewis William Brown Annie Arthur 💍 1900/2168	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	34 31	Invercargill Invercargill	37 years 4 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages Invercargill	00/3930		24 August 1900	J. L. Bush, Registrar
80	24 August 1900	James Thomas William Williams Isabella Gillespie Baker	James Thomas Voss Williams Isabelle Gillespie Baker 💍 1900/2177	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Shunter	25 26	Invercargill Invercargill	1 month 24 years	St Johns Church Day Street Invercargill	00/3940		24 August 1900	Rev 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).