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 795

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1901 Registrar John Logan Bush

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
69	31 May 1901	Joseph Johnston Jessie Louisa Grobarth	Joseph Johnston Jessie Louisa Frobarth 💍 1901/2445	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 24	Invercargill Invercargill	24 years 24 years	House of Mrs August Grobarth, Tweed Street, Invercargill	01/2868	31 May 1901	Rev J. Gibson Smith
70	3 June 1901	Robert Dyet Mary Hardy	Robert Dych Mary Hardy 💍 1901/2440	Bachelor Spinster	Slaughterman	26 30	West Plains Invercargill	20 years 12 months	House of Mr J. Ogilvy, Biggar Street, Invercargill	01/2864	3 June 1901	Rev Geo Lindsay
71	3 June 1901	John Flynn Rachel Wilson Johnston	John Flynn Richard Wilson Johnston 💍 1901/2442	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 26	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	House of Mr William McKay, Clifton, Invercargill	01/2865	3 June 1901	Rev Geo Lindsay
72	4 June 1901	James McCunn Christina Fraser Smith	James McCann Christina Fraser Smith 💍 1901/2443	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand	25 22	Makarewa Makarewa	3 days 6 years	St Mary's Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill	01/2866	4 June 1901	Rev Wm Burke
73	7 June 1901	Andrew Charles Jones Elizabeth Pirie	Andrew Charles Zivies Elizabeth Pirie 💍 1901/2430	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	51 29	Oteramika Oteramika	6 years 3 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/2846	7 June 1901	J. L. Bush, Registrar
74	7 June 1901	William John Parker Jane Moore Dalgleish	William John Parker Hodgkins Jane Moore Dalgliesh 💍 1901/3742	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Accountant	34 30	Dunedin Invercargill	2½ years 30 years	All Saints Church, Gladstone, Dunedin	01/4196	7 June 1901	Bishop of Dunedin
75	10 June 1901	William Torwood Isabella Bennett	William Toogood Isabella Bennett 💍 1901/2397	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	39 27	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill	01/2845	10 June 1901	J. L. Bush, Registrar
76	10 June 1901	William Thomas Bushnan Ada Matilda Woodward	William Thomas Ada Matilda Woodward 💍 1901/2473	Bachelor Spinster		23 23	Woodend Clifton	23 years 18 years	House of Mr James Hodges, Clifton, Invercargill	01/2873	10 June 1901	Rev J. A. Paybus

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).