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 787

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1901 Registrar M. Rush

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
9	21 January 1901	James Clark Elizabeth Fraser	James Clark Elizabeth Fraser 💍 1901/1083	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 25	Ryal Bush South Forest Hill	21 years 25 years	House of Mrs George Macaldou, South Forest Hill, Southland	01/1329		21 January 1901	Rev. Geo. Macdonald
10	21 January 1901	William Fraser Eliza Selatly Anderson	William Fraser Eliza Galattly Anderson 💍 1901/961	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	47 20	Waimahike North Invercargill	30 years 20 years	House of Mrs Wm. Anderson, North Invercargill	01/1249	William Anderson, father	21 January 1901	Rev. Robt. McCully
11	21 January 1901	William Frederick Fraser Edith Emily Taylor	William Frederick Trainor Edith Emily Taylor 💍 1901/968 William Frederick Ramsay Elizabeth Sarah Emily Taylor 💍 1901/1934 Arthur William James Herbert Edith Emily Taylor 💍 1902/1911	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 19	Invercargill Invercargill	16 months 3 years	Second Church, Kelvin Street, Invercargill	01/1232	Adelaide Alice Linscott, mother of bride	21 January 1901	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
12	26 January 1901	Andrew George Brown Alice Sweet Taylor Alexander	Andrew George Brown Alice Sweet Taylor Alexander 💍 1901/791	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Woodlands Woodlands	9 years 21 years	House of Mrs Thos. Alexander, Woodlands	01/1226		26 January 1901	Rev. Sam. Bissett
13	26 January 1901	William James Pidgeon Clara Maud Caroline Denton	William James Pidgeon Clara Maud Caroline Denton 💍 1901/954	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	22 26	Waikivi, Invercargill North Invercargill	1 month 15 years	Parsonage of Rev. J. A. Luxford, North Road, Invercargill	01/1242		26 January 1901	Rev. J. A. Luxford
14	28 January 1901	John Patrick Shaw Margaret Lould Morrison	John Patrick Shaw Margaret Wyld Morison 💍 1901/962	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	Balclutha Invercargill	24 years 6 weeks	St. Paul's Church, Dee Street, Invercargill	01/1231		28 January 1901	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
15	29 January 1901	David Wallace Scott Isabella Janet Young	David Flause Scott Isabella Janet Young 💍 1901/963	Widower Spinster	Carrier	25 21	Invercargill Invercargill	5 days 21 years	House of Mrs George Young, Dee Street, Invercargill	01/1250		29 January 1901	Rev. J. Cumming
16	4 February 1901	Andrew Pinchott Grogon Mary Emma Goodfellow		Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 21	Invercargill Invercargill	15 years 2 years	House of Mrs Robt. Wilson, Spey Street, Invercargill	01/1233		4 February 1901	Rev. Geo. Lindsay

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).