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 185

District of Shortland Quarter ending 30 September 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
116	4 July 1870	John Hope Emma Hanlen	John Hope Emma Hanlen 💍 1870/5328	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 23	Candlelight Grahamstown	2 years 12 months	St George's Church, Shortland		4 July 1870	Revd. V. Lush
117	5 July 1870	Benjamin Palmer Mary Picket	Benjamin Palmer Mary Picket 💍 1870/5280	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	27 23	Shortland Shortland	2 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Chapel, Shortland		5 July 1870	Revd. Father Nivardo
118	7 July 1870	Samuel Holloway Jean Ferguson	Samuel Holloway Jean Ferguson 💍 1870/5202	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 days 3 months	In the House of Mr. Charles Bathgate Kurunui Hill		8 July 1870	Revd. James Hill
119	25 July 1870	Oliver Sorenson Susannah Robinson	Oliver Sorenson Susannah Robinson 💍 1870/3806	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 21	Tararu Tararu	2 years 1 year	The Church of England, Shortland		25 July 1870	Revd. V. Lush
120	2 August 1870	Thomas Keelan Hannah Cassidy	Thomas Keelan Hannah Cassidy 💍 1870/5283	Bachelor Widow	Miller	40 30	Ohinemuri Ohinemuri	2 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Shortland		2 August 1870	Revd. Father Nivardo
121	9 August 1870	Thomas Condon Mary Ann Nedry	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 21	Waiotahi Waiotahi	2 years 1 month	Roman Catholic Chapel, Shortland
122	15 August 1870	Joseph Davidson Spedding Helen Calderwood	Joseph Davidson Spedding Helen Calderwood 💍 1870/5205	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 19	Shortland Grahamstown	4 days 4 months	Dwellinghouse occupied by Mr S. P. Scholfield, Grahamstown	Samuel Scholfield, Guardian and also James Calderwood - The Father	15 August 1870	Revd. James Hill
123	18 August 1870	Edward Fogarty Mary Leaning	Edward Fogarty Mary Leaning 💍 1870/5208	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	25 21	Karaka Karaka	2 1/2 years 1 month	The Residence of the Revd. James Hill, Shortland, The Thames		18 August 1870	Revd. James Hill
124	20 August 1870	George Goodall Martha Burall	George Goodall Martha Burrell 💍 1870/5331	Bachelor Widow	Miner	43 27	Tararu Tararu	2 years 1 1/2 years	St George's Church, Shortland		20 August 1870	Revd. W. Lush
125	2 September 1870	John Rountree Emily Sargent	John Rountree Emily Sargeant 💍 1870/5211	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 19	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 1 year	The Dwelling house occupied by James Sergent, Williamson Street, Grahamstown	The Father, James Sergent		Revd. James Hill

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 1899. 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).