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 798

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 September 1901 Registrar John Gaumon Petrie

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
85	3 July 1901	William Thomas Boyer Gertrude Advenalment	William Thomas Boyd Gertrude Adrienne Marsh 💍 1901/3703	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	27 20	Wrights Bush Invercargill	2 years 8 months	St John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/4173	no person resident in the Colony having Authority to give Consent	17 July 1901	Ven Archdn Stocker
86	5 July 1901	George Batt Elizabeth Maria Corkran (Mrs Potts)	George Batt Elizabeth Maria Porteous 💍 1901/5031	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	30 30	Wrights Bush West Plains	12 years 9 years	All Saints Church, Gladstone, Invercargill	01/5610		8 July 1901	Revd C C Oakes
86	8 July 1901	William Johnson Mary Robertson	William Johnson Mary Robertson 💍 1901/3693 William Grace Mary Robertson 💍 1901/5551 William Paterson Mary Ann Robertson 💍 1901/3553	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	20 24	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 4 days	St John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/4187	Edward Johnson, Father	8 July 1901	Rev J Gibson Smith
87	8 July 1901	James John Lawrance Ada Kate Baker	James Lawrence Ada Kate Beker 💍 1901/3702	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 24	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 24 years	St John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/4172		8 July 1901	Ven Archdn Stocker
88	15 July 1901	Frank Lovelock Sarah Phoebe St Giles Fox	Esdale Lovell Lovell Sarah Phoebe St Giles Fox 💍 1901/3686	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	23 30	Invercargill Invercargill	7 months 3 years	House of Mr W E Fox, Earn Street, Invercargill	01/4181		15 July 1901	Rev J. A. Luxford
89	19 July 1901	Carl Hjalman George Hallgreen Jane Cockson (Mrs Cameron)	Carl Hjalman George Hallgreen Janet Nelson 💍 1901/3685	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	54 46	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office Registrar Marriages, Invercargill	01/4179		19 July 1901	Registrar Marriages
90	22 July 1901	Trinidad Campbell Margaret Jones Turnbull Forbes	Ferdinard Campion Batchelor Margaret Janet Turnbull Forbes 💍 1901/3704	Widower Widow	Doctor of Medicine	51 39	Dunedin Invercargill	27 years 3 days	St John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/4174		22 July 1901	Ven Archdn Stocker
91	24 July 1901	Henry Robert Waddell Mary Adelaide Perry	Henry Robert Waddell Mary Adelaide Berry 💍 1901/3694	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	26 22	Woodlands Woodlands	26 years 6 years	Manse, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/4188		24 July 1901	Rev J Gibson Smith

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).