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 796

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 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
77	11 June 1901	George Charles Alexander Todd Florence Erina Martin	George Charles Alexander Todd Florence Nina Merten 💍 1901/2432	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	28 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 years 22 years	St Johns Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/2856		11 June 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
78	14 June 1901	George Brocket Jessie Isabella Johnston	George Brocket Jessie Isabella Johnston 💍 1901/2431	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	St Johns Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/2855		14 June 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
79	17 June 1901	Thomas De Garnham Catherine Ann Colby	Thomas De Garnham Catherine Ann Coleby 💍 1901/2441	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 21	Invercargill Invercargill	28 years 21 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/2847		17 June 1901	Mr J. L. Bush, Registrar
80	17 June 1901	John Watt Harriet Emma Rose	John Watt Harriet Emma Rose 💍 1901/2435	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 24	Invercargill Invercargill	27 years 24 years	House of Mr John Rose, Waikivi	01/2859		17 June 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
81	19 June 1901	Charles O'Connor Haddo Gordon Ellen Jane Brokenshar	Charles Oconnor Hadde Gordon Ellen Jane Brokersha 💍 1901/2433	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 21	Invercargill Invercargill	1 year 21 years	St Johns Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/2857		19 June 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
82	25 June 1901	William Shirley Gardner Margaret Somerville Young	William Shirley Gardner Margaret Somerville Young 💍 1901/2434	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 20	Invercargill Invercargill	20 years 20 years	St Johns Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/2858	Harriet Gardner, Mother; John Young, Father	25 June 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
83	27 June 1901	Thomas Henderson Marion McNeill McDiarmid	Thomas Henderson Marion McNeil McDermid 💍 1901/3743 Thomas Henderson Sarah Scott Millar 💍 1902/1015	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 34	Scorton Plains, Southland Waianawa, Southland	4 years 30 years	House of Mr Duncan McDiarmid, Waianawa	01/4197		27 June 1901	Rev Wm White
84	29 June 1901	Duncan Clarke Ewart Jessie Agnes Hannah	Duncan Clarke Mathieson Jessie Agnes Hannah 💍 1901/2448	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 26	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/2848		29 June 1901	Mr 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 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).