Intentions to Marry, 1902 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840422, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke and Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, October 3 and October 8, 2025.

1902 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 772

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1902 Registrar John Gaumon Petrie

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

6 March 1902

James Guy
Jane Forber

James Guy
Jane Forbes
💍 1902/411

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

39
23

East Invercargill
East Invercargill

14 days
8 years

House of John Sendon, Tay Street East Invercargill

02/1403

6 March 1902

Rev. Geo. Lindsay

No	29
Date of Notice	6 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Guy	Jane Forber
BDM Match (95%)	James Guy	Jane Forbes
	💍 1902/411
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	39	23
Dwelling Place	East Invercargill	East Invercargill
Length of Residence	14 days	8 years
Marriage Place	House of John Sendon, Tay Street East Invercargill
Folio	02/1403
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. Lindsay

10 March 1902

Augustus Smoothy
Adelaide May Poultney

Augustus Smoothy
Adelaide May Poultney
💍 1902/419

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer
Domestic

27
17

Invercargill
Invercargill

8 years
1 year

Residence of Matthew Buchanan, Poultney, Seaward Bush

02/1394

Matthew Buchanan, father

10 March 1902

Rev. T. A. R. Tatybus

No	30
Date of Notice	10 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Augustus Smoothy	Adelaide May Poultney
	💍 1902/419
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer	Domestic
Age	27	17
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	8 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of Matthew Buchanan, Poultney, Seaward Bush
Folio	02/1394
Consent	Matthew Buchanan, father
Date of Certificate	10 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. A. R. Tatybus

10 March 1902

Ralph Swan
Caroline Elizabeth Lethaby

Ralph Swan
Caroline Elizabeth Lethaby
💍 1902/416

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

22
18

Invercargill
Invercargill

5 years
9 years

Residence of Thomas Lethaby, Tay Street, Invercargill

02/1408

Thomas Lethaby, father

10 March 1902

Rev. Thos. Lyon

No	31
Date of Notice	10 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Swan	Caroline Elizabeth Lethaby
	💍 1902/416
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	5 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Thomas Lethaby, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	02/1408
Consent	Thomas Lethaby, father
Date of Certificate	10 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Lyon

11 March 1902

Alexander Stewart Flowers
Maud Elizabeth Bailey Fearn

Alexander Stewart Flowers
Maud Elizabeth Bailey Fearn
💍 1902/445

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic

22
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
5 years

St. John Church of England, Tay Street, Invercargill

02/1414

Thomas Fearn, father

11 March 1902

Rev. Andrew Docker

No	32
Date of Notice	11 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Stewart Flowers	Maud Elizabeth Bailey Fearn
	💍 1902/445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	5 years
Marriage Place	St. John Church of England, Tay Street, Invercargill
Folio	02/1414
Consent	Thomas Fearn, father
Date of Certificate	11 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. Andrew Docker

12 March 1902

Thomas William Hammond
Catherine Margaret McLean

Thomas William Hammond
Catherine Margaret McLean
💍 1902/3327

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener
Domestic

29
29

Ryal Bush, Invercargill
Ryal Bush, Invercargill

3 days
20 years

Residence of John McLean, Ryal Bush, Invercargill

02/2960

12 March 1902

Rev. William White

No	33
Date of Notice	12 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas William Hammond	Catherine Margaret McLean
	💍 1902/3327
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener	Domestic
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Ryal Bush, Invercargill	Ryal Bush, Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John McLean, Ryal Bush, Invercargill
Folio	02/2960
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. William White

13 March 1902

Thomas Henry Martin
Rosa Cox

Thomas Henry Martin
Rosa Cox
💍 1902/412

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter
Domestic

22
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

22 years
20 years

Residence of Walter Henry Pidgeon, North Invercargill

02/1404

13 March 1902

Rev. George Lindsay

No	34
Date of Notice	13 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Martin	Rosa Cox
	💍 1902/412
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Domestic
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	22 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Walter Henry Pidgeon, North Invercargill
Folio	02/1404
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1902
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Lindsay

15 March 1902

George Patrick Crengle
Mary Isabel McDermid

George Patrick Crengle
Mary Isabel McDermid
💍 1902/3239

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

30
25

Waianiva, Invercargill
Waianiva, Invercargill

12 years
25 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill

02/2953

Very Revd. Dean Burke

No	35
Date of Notice	15 March 1902
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Patrick Crengle	Mary Isabel McDermid
	💍 1902/3239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Waianiva, Invercargill	Waianiva, Invercargill
Length of Residence	12 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Clyde Street, Invercargill
Folio	02/2953
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Very Revd. Dean Burke

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 1903. 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).