Intentions to Marry, 1903 South Island

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840424, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, October 10 2025.

1903 is bound in two volumes, North Island districts and South Island districts.

Page 822

District of INVERCARGILL Quarter ending 31 December 1903 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

168

11 December 1903

James Mitchell Foote
Jessie Mitchell

James Mitchell Fowler
Jessie Mitchell
💍 1903/6444

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer
Housekeeper

39
34

New River, INVERCARGILL
New River, INVERCARGILL

3 days
3 days

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, INVERCARGILL

03/6438

11 December 1903

Registrar of Marriages, INVERCARGILL

No	168
Date of Notice	11 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Mitchell Foote	Jessie Mitchell
BDM Match (93%)	James Mitchell Fowler	Jessie Mitchell
	💍 1903/6444
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer	Housekeeper
Age	39	34
Dwelling Place	New River, INVERCARGILL	New River, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, INVERCARGILL
Folio	03/6438
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, INVERCARGILL

169

12 December 1903

James Alexander Macconochie
Helen Grigor

James Alexander Maconochie
Helen Grigor
💍 1903/6290

Bachelor
Spinster

Grazier

33
29

Dee Street, INVERCARGILL
Forth Street, INVERCARGILL

5 days
29 years

Presbyterian Church, Tay Street, INVERCARGILL

03/6451

12 December 1903

Rev Geo Lindsay

No	169
Date of Notice	12 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alexander Macconochie	Helen Grigor
BDM Match (98%)	James Alexander Maconochie	Helen Grigor
	💍 1903/6290
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grazier
Age	33	29
Dwelling Place	Dee Street, INVERCARGILL	Forth Street, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	5 days	29 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Tay Street, INVERCARGILL
Folio	03/6451
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Geo Lindsay

170

12 December 1903

Alfred Dixon
Amelia Caroline Reussel

Alfred Dixon
Amelia Caroline Beissel
💍 1904/576

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter
Domestic

31
24

Dee Street, INVERCARGILL
Tweed Street, INVERCARGILL

3 years
10 years

English Church, Tay Street, INVERCARGILL

04/1470

12 December 1903

Ven Archdn Stocker

No	170
Date of Notice	12 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Dixon	Amelia Caroline Reussel
BDM Match (96%)	Alfred Dixon	Amelia Caroline Beissel
	💍 1904/576
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter	Domestic
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Dee Street, INVERCARGILL	Tweed Street, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	3 years	10 years
Marriage Place	English Church, Tay Street, INVERCARGILL
Folio	04/1470
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Ven Archdn Stocker

171

14 December 1903

Horace Swan
Florence Trow

Horace Swan
Florence Trow
💍 1903/6283

Bachelor
Spinster

Seafaring
Machinest

20
20

Esk Street, INVERCARGILL
St Andrews Street North, INVERCARGILL

6 years
10 years

Wesleyan Church, Leet Street, INVERCARGILL

03/6467

Daniel Swan, Father; Albert Henry Trow, Father

14 December 1903

Rev J J Lewis

No	171
Date of Notice	14 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Swan	Florence Trow
	💍 1903/6283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seafaring	Machinest
Age	20	20
Dwelling Place	Esk Street, INVERCARGILL	St Andrews Street North, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	6 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Leet Street, INVERCARGILL
Folio	03/6467
Consent	Daniel Swan, Father; Albert Henry Trow, Father
Date of Certificate	14 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev J J Lewis

172

16 December 1903

Arthur Booth
Margaret Josephine O'Regan

Arthur Cook
Margaret Josephine ORegan
💍 1903/6279

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill hand
Domestic

23
26

Eye Street, INVERCARGILL
Ann Street North, INVERCARGILL

23 years
24 years

Roman Catholic Church, Clyde Street, INVERCARGILL

03/6464

16 December 1903

Very Rev Dean Burke

No	172
Date of Notice	16 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Booth	Margaret Josephine O'Regan
BDM Match (86%)	Arthur Cook	Margaret Josephine ORegan
	💍 1903/6279
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill hand	Domestic
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Eye Street, INVERCARGILL	Ann Street North, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	23 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Clyde Street, INVERCARGILL
Folio	03/6464
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Very Rev Dean Burke

173

17 December 1903

Charles H. Callan
Sarah Ann Thomson

Charles McCallum
Sarah Ann Stevenson
💍 1903/6292

Bachelor
Spinster

Machinist
Domestic

26
26

Gray Street East, INVERCARGILL
Yarrow Street, INVERCARGILL

7 months
7 months

Residence of William Scott, Clifton, INVERCARGILL

03/6453

17 December 1903

Rev Geo Lindsay

No	173
Date of Notice	17 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles H. Callan	Sarah Ann Thomson
BDM Match (70%)	Charles McCallum	Sarah Ann Stevenson
	💍 1903/6292
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Machinist	Domestic
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Gray Street East, INVERCARGILL	Yarrow Street, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	7 months	7 months
Marriage Place	Residence of William Scott, Clifton, INVERCARGILL
Folio	03/6453
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 December 1903
Officiating Minister	Rev Geo Lindsay

174

18 December 1903

Peter Fraser
Marion Ellen Myers

Peter Fraser
Marion Ellen Myers
💍 1903/6291

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler
Domestic

27
23

North INVERCARGILL
Waikiwi, INVERCARGILL

19 years
23 years

Residence of Christian Myers, Waikiwi, INVERCARGILL

03/6452

18 December 1903

Rev Geo Lindsay

No	174
Date of Notice	18 December 1903
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Fraser	Marion Ellen Myers
	💍 1903/6291
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler	Domestic
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	North INVERCARGILL	Waikiwi, INVERCARGILL
Length of Residence	19 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Christian Myers, Waikiwi, INVERCARGILL
Folio	03/6452
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 December 1903
Officiating Minister	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 1908. 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).