Intentions to Marry, 1901 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840420, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 22 2025

1901 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 788

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1901 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
17	5 February 1901	Thomas Brittan Bryant Helen Lowrie	Thomas Brittan Bryant Helen Lowrie 💍 1901/780	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Laborer	33 29	Mabel Bush Mabel Bush	10 years 21 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/1216		5 February 1901	J. L. Bush, Registrar
18	8 February 1901	Ernest William Carter Elizabeth Maria Auchin	Ernest William Carter Elizabeth Maria Austin 💍 1901/965	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 25	Invercargill Invercargill	4 1/2 years 25 years	First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/1252		8 February 1901	Revd Gibson Smith
19	8 February 1901	William George Crosbie Elizabeth Judge	William George Martin Elizabeth Judge 💍 1901/964	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	24 24	Invercargill Invercargill	20 years 12 months	First Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/1257		8 February 1901	Revd Gibson Smith
20	9 February 1901	Alexander McLeod Catherine Ogilvie	Alexander McLeod Catherine Ogilvie 💍 1901/781	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Mabel Bush Mabel Bush	3 weeks 18 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/1217	Wm Ogilvie, Father	9 February 1901	J. L. Bush, Registrar
21	12 February 1901	Robert Sinclair Mary Jane Morrow	Robert Sinclair Mary Jane Woodley 💍 1901/955	Widower Widow	Carpenter	68 55	Invercargill Invercargill	40 years 8 years	House of Mr Robt Sinclair, Spey Street, Invercargill	01/1273		12 February 1901	Revd J. A. Luxford
22	13 February 1901	William Henry Scott Fortune Catherine Oates Snuggleton	William Henry Escott Fortune Catherine Oates Meggleton 💍 1901/952	Widower Spinster	Carrier	31 32	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 2 weeks	St Johns Church, Tay Street	01/1240		13 February 1901	Revd D. C. Bates
23	14 February 1901	John Morrison Annie Spencer	John Morrison Annie Spencer 💍 1901/782	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	31 21	Bluff Invercargill	3 years 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/1218		14 February 1901	J. L. Bush, Registrar
24	15 February 1901	Charles Harris Catherine Bissett Scott	Charles Harris Catherine Bissett Scott 💍 1901/789	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Juice Road, Invercargill Wallacetown	7 months 22 years	House of Mr David Scott, Wallacetown	01/1294		15 February 1901	Revd Wm White

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 1901. 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).