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 804

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1901 Registrar J. G. 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
118	19 October 1901	Henry Alfred Bowes Lizzie Parker	Henry Alfred Bowers Lizzie Parker 💍 1901/6201	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	29 28	Invercargill Invercargill	3 months 3 months	Office Registrar Marriages, Invercargill	01/5596		19 October 1901	Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill
119	24 October 1901	Angus McIntyre Janet Lawrie		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 18	Invercargill Invercargill	32 years 18 years	Office Registrar Marriages, Invercargill	01/5595	Christina Lawrie, Mother	24 October 1901	Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill
120	21 October 1901	Isaac Henry Atkinson Amelia Ann Tenn	Isaac Henry Atkinson Amelia Ann Fenn 💍 1901/5021	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 23	Invercargill Invercargill	12 years 22 years	St. John Church, Tay Street, Invercargill	01/5624		21 October 1901	Rev. Arthur Stocker
121	22 October 1901	Malcolm McKenzie Catherine McQuilkan	Malcolm McKenzie Catherine McQuilkan 💍 1901/5500	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 24	Invercargill Invercargill	26 years 24 years	Residence of John McQuilkan, Spey Street, Invercargill	01/6044		22 October 1901	Rev. J. Gibson Smith
122	22 October 1901	Thomas Timpany Helen Seddon	Thomas Timpany Hellen Tulloch 💍 1901/5164	Widower Widow	Sawmiller Hotel-Keeper	38 59	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 15 years	Princess Hotel, Dee Street, Invercargill	01/5634		22 October 1901	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
123	22 October 1901	Charles Ramsay Agnes Theresa Ward	Charles Ramsay Agnes Theresa Grindlay 💍 1901/5151	Widower Widow	Engine Driver	40 35	Invercargill Invercargill	6 months 6 years	Residence of Charles Ramsay, Leet Street, Invercargill	01/5645		22 October 1901	Rev. J. H. Lyon
124	23 October 1901	John William Hewlett Sarah Sinclair	John William Willett Sarah Sinclair 💍 1901/5165	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 25	Invercargill Invercargill	10 years 25 years	Residence of Mr. Sinclair, McMaster Street, East Invercargill	01/5635		23 October 1901	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
125	31 October 1901	John Thornbury Jessie Allman	John Thornbury Jessie McLennon 💍 1901/5042	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer	27 21	Invercargill Invercargill	8 years 6 days	Office Registrar Marriages, Invercargill	01/5597		31 October 1901	Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).