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 808

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar J. G. Petu

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
148	10 December 1901	Robert Livingstone Grace Aldred	Robert Livingstone Lockerbie Grace Aldred 💍 1901/5023	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 25	Invercargill Invercargill	25 years 5 years	St John's English Church, Tay Street	01/5625		10 December 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
149	11 December 1901	Henry Sparrows Sarah Agnes Moors	Henry Sparrow Sarah Agnes Moore 💍 1901/5016	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 20	North Invercargill North Invercargill	4 years 3 years	House of Joseph Moors, North Invercargill	01/5617	Joseph Moors, Father	11 December 1901	Rev. J. Gibson Smith
150	12 December 1901	George Alexander Brown Mary Pullman	George Alexander Brown Mary Bullman 💍 1901/5967	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Housemaid	30 28	Invercargill Invercargill	30 years 6 years	House of Charles Faulkner, Princes Street	01/5621		12 December 1901	Very Rev. Dean Burke
151	12 December 1901	Ernest Albert Hewitt Eliza Louisa Newton	Ernest Albert Hewitt Eliza Laura Winton 💍 1902/436	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	21 24	Invercargill Invercargill	20 years 23 years	St John's English Church, Tay Street	01/1410		12 December 1901	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
152	13 December 1901	David Bryant Elizabeth Gibb	David Bryant Elizabeth Gibb 💍 1901/5026	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	35 16	Invercargill Invercargill	9 years 6 years	House of Henry Edward Gibb, Leven Street, Invercargill	See No. 155	Henry Edward Gibb, Father	13 December 1901	Rev. James Leey
153	17 December 1901	William Thomas Kingham Flora Isabella Grant	William Thomas King Allen Flora Isabella Grant 💍 1901/5156	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 31	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 1 year	House of John Grant, Mailler Avenue, Invercargill	01/5649		17 December 1901	Rev. William White
154	17 December 1901	John Cullen May Anderson Calder	John Callen Mary Anderson Calder 💍 1901/5024	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	48 30	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 2 years	House of Alexander Calder, Morton Mains, Invercargill	01/5627		17 December 1901	Rev. Evan Pinett

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).