Intentions to Marry, 1863

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840375, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 298

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 1863

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
67	7 October 1863	Charles John Dunnage Mary Ada Brittin	Charles John Dunnage Mary Ada Brittin 💍 1863/6030	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	31 15	Three Springs Station Three Springs Station	4 years 1/2 year	Residence of W Dunnage	814	John Brittin, father	6 October 1863	Rev. George Foster
68	8 October 1863	Ruben Johnson Elizabeth Burrel	Ruben Johnson Elizabeth Berrill 💍 1863/3589 Francis Johnson Elizabeth Quinn 💍 1863/4287	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	26 21	Orani Orani	1 month 11 years	Residence of R Warmoll	815		8 October 1863	Rev. Laurence Moore
69	27 October 1863	Henry Butcher Sarah Coil	Henry Butcher Sarah Coil 💍 1863/6033	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 24	Waimate Timaru	4 years 13 days	St Mary Church, Timaru	815		27 October 1863	Rev George Foster
70	10 October 1863	John Gilbert Mary Ann Madden	John Gilbert Mary Ann Madden 💍 1863/6042	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	23 20	Timaru Timaru	3 months 4 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages	820	Declaration made that there is no person in the Colony to give consent	10 October 1863	Registar of Marriages, Timaru
71	10 October 1863	Richard William Bartlett Mary Gillespie	Richard William Bartlett Mary Gillespie 💍 1863/6045	Bachelor Widow	Boatman	33 30	Timaru Timaru	4 months 1 month	Office of Registrar of Marriages	821		January 24 [UNCLEAR]	Registar of Marriages, Timaru
72	10 October 1863	Robert Down Jessie Craigie	Robert Donn Jessie Craigie 💍 1863/3408	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Timaru Timaru	9 months 3 months	St Mary Church, Timaru	816		February 13 [UNCLEAR]	Rev. George Foster
73	17 October 1863	Adam Irvine Clarissa Emma Smith	Adam Irvin Clarissa Emma Smith 💍 1863/3595	Bachelor Spinster	Overseer	30 23	Mount Peel Mount Peel	2 years 6 months	Mr Irvine's Residence, Peel Forest	810		17 October 1863	Rev. Laurence Moore
74	19 October 1863	Alexander Charles Mills Emma Loader	Alexander Charles Mills Emma Louder 💍 1863/6036	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Servant	22 19	Timaru Timaru	3 months 3 days	St Mary Church, Timaru	817	George Loader, father	19 October 1863	Rev. George Foster

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).