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 801

District of Invercargell 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
99	4 September 1901	William Knee Lea Bella Mabel Pattison	William Knee Joebella Mabel Patterson 💍 1901/3682	Widower Spinster	Drill Instructor	33 20	Invercargell Invercargell	1 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	St John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargell	01/4176	Mary Ann Pattison, Mother	4 September 1901	Rev. Andrew Stocker
100	10 September 1901	Fred Wm Stamen Amel Beatrice Shepherd	Fred Hans Hansen Annie Beatrice Shepherd 💍 1901/6326	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 19	Invercargell Invercargell	18 months 1 year	Office of Registrar of Marriages	01/4180	Thomas Shepherd, Father	10 September 1901	Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill
101	10 September 1901	Charles Matravers Benzoni Mary Agnes Crofts	Charles Mctravers Benzoni Mary Agnes Crofts 💍 1901/3683	Bachelor Spinster	Draftsman Craftsman	26 26	Invercargell Invercargell	3 days 20 years	St John's Church, Tay Street, Invercargell	01/4177		10 September 1901	Rev. Andrew Stocker
102	17 September 1901	Joshua Froggatt Mary Lucy Ward	Joshua Froggatt Mary Lucy Ward 💍 1901/3690	Bachelor Spinster	Apiarist Apiarist	54 36	Long Bush Long Bush	30 years 20 years	House of Mr. Jas. Greenhill, Ettrick Street, Invercargell	01/4185		17 September 1901	Mr. Jas. Greenhill
103	21 September 1901	Charles Ford Kingdon Grace Milcot	Charles Ford Kingdon Grace Wilcox 💍 1901/3688	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 27	Ryal Bush, Invercargell Ryal Bush, Invercargell	3 years 1 year	St Paul's Manse, Kelvin Street, Invercargell	01/4183		21 September 1901	Revd. Geo. Lindsay
104	21 September 1901	James Smith Mary Juage Smith	James Smith Mary Judge 💍 1901/3695 James Smith Mary Jane Armstrong 💍 1901/3623 James Smith Margaret Lanigan 💍 1901/2584	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Moulder	23 23	Invercargill Invercargill	1 year 3 days	First Church Manse, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/4189		21 September 1901	Revd. J. Elson Smith
105	23 September 1901	Edward Collins Catherine Frances Bonnin	Edward Collins Catherine Francis Bowner 💍 1901/3868	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 23	Invercargill Invercargill	3 months 2 months	St Mary's Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill	01/4404		23 September 1901	Very Revd. Dean Burke

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).