Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 177

District of Shortland Quarter ending 31 March 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
173	7 January 1870	Malcolm Bruce Martha Nicoll	Malcolm Bruce Martha Nicol 💍 1870/5172	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	23 21	Shortland Shortland	2 years 2 years	Dwelling house occupied by Malcolm Bruce, Shortland		7 January 1870	James Hill
174	13 January 1870	Horatio Luckin Jane Higgins	Haratio Jenkin Jane Higgins 💍 1870/5175	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	34 24	Shortland Shortland	2 years 2 years	Dwelling house occupied by Mr James Higgins, Shortland		13 January 1870	F. Lush
175	13 January 1870	Henry Saunders Margaret Barwise	Henry Saunders Margaret Barnise 💍 1870/5235	Miner Widow	Miner	39 45	Shortland Shortland	5 months 2 years	Dwelling house occupied by Henry Saunders, Shortland		13 January 1870	G.S. Harper
176	17 January 1870	David Clarkson Ann Labrum	David Clarke Ann Labrun 💍 1870/5178	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	24 21	Shellback Creek Shellback Creek	12 months 6 months	Residence Ann Labrum, Shortland		17 January 1870	James Hill
177	19 January 1870	George Frederick Daniell Price Mary Fancy Heir	George Frederick Darrell Price Mary Fanny Heir 💍 1870/5301	Bachelor Widow	Theatrical Actress	28 36	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 months 18 months	St George's Church, Shortland		19 January 1870	F. Lush
178	26 February 1870	Spedding Akeroyd Mary Ann Yates	Spedding Akeroyd Mary Jane Yates 💍 1870/5184	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	31 21	Karaka Hill Karaka Hill	20 months 21 years	Dwelling house occupied by Spedding Akeroyd Karaka Hill		9 February 1870	James Hill
179	25 January 1870	Thomas Glenn Mary Ann Bushwell Sinclair	Thomas Glenn Mary Jane Bushnell Sinclair 💍 1870/5304	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 17	Waiotahi Creek Waiotahi Creek	2 years 17 years	St George's Church Shortland	The Father Robert Sinclair	27 January 1870	F. Lush

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).