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 803

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 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
108	1 October 1900	George William King Bertha May Foster	George William King Bertha May Foster 💍 1901/5150	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	22 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 Days 15 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Don St, Invercargill	01/5644		1 October 1900	Rev. T. H. Lyon
109	1 October 1901	Walter James Karlson Fanny Witsey	Walter James Maslen Fanny Witsey 💍 1901/5027	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill-hand	22 26	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 20 years	Church of England, Clifton	01/5606		1 October 1901	Rev. D. C. Bates
110	5 October 1901	James Hamilton Mary Harred	James Hamilton Mary Hassed 💍 1901/5028 James Hamilton Jane Stuart McIntyre 💍 1902/610	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	25 24	Invercargill Invercargill	13 years 14 years	All Saints Church, Gladstone	01/5607		5 October 1901	Rev. D. C. Bates
111	8 October 1901	George Calder Sarah Emily Stanway	George Calder Sarah Emily Stanway 💍 1901/5154	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 9 months	House of W. Stanway, Earn Street, Invercargill	01/5630		8 October 1901	Rev. T. A. Pybus
112	8 October 1901	George Francis Mabon Christina Ann Ferguson	George Franics Watson Christina Ann Ferguson 💍 1901/5013	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 28	Invercargill Invercargill	3 Days 28 years	Presbyterian Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/5614		8 October 1901	Rev. J. Gibson Smith
113	14 October 1901	Ernest Sheffield Elizabeth Hands		Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	29 23	Invercargill Invercargill	1 year 1 month	Primitive Methodist Church, North Invercargill	01/5629		14 October 1901	Rev. T. A. Pybus
114	14 October 1901	Alfred Mountholmes Lucy Lees	Alfred Norris Holmes Lucy Lees 💍 1901/5025	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 21	Invercargill Invercargill	3 years 4 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Clifton	01/5628		14 October 1901	Rev. T. A. Pybus
115	19 October 1901	Alfred Augustus Anderson Annie Penk	Alfred Augustus Anderson Annie Pink 💍 1901/5153	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	31 21	Invercargill Invercargill	1 month 20 years	House of J. J. Penk, Waianiwa	01/5647		19 October 1901	Rev. J. H. White
116	19 October 1901	Walter Norman Nellie Richards	Walter Hormann Nellie Richards 💍 1901/5152	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Invercargill Invercargill	26 years 4 months	Presbyterian Church, Waikivi	01/5646	James Richards, Father	31 October 1901	Rev. Jas Cumming
117	19 October 1901	Alfred Barron Emma King	Alfred Brown Emma King 💍 1901/5960	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Invercargill Invercargill	23 years 21 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/5594		19 October 1901	John Gaumon Petrie, Registrar of Marriages

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).