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 187

District of Shortland Quarter ending 31 December 1870

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
131	11 October 1870	Robert French Marian Hunter	Robert French Marian Hunter 💍 1870/4062	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 22	Shortland Komusra	1 month 8 years	Wesleyan Ch.	Auckland		11th October 1870	Rev. C. Rigg
132	18 October 1870	William Mitchell Mary Fitzpatrick	William Mitchell Mary Fitzpatrick 💍 1870/5286	Bachelor Widow	Miner	41 37	Shortland Shortland	2 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel			18th October 1870	Rev. Father Tevardo
133	26 October 1870	Henry Hobson Susan Andrew	Henry Hobson Gash Susan Andrew 💍 1870/5217	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	28 21	Shortland Shortland	3 years 15 months	Dwelling house occupied by Mr. John Andrew			10 November 1870	Rev. Campbell
134	8 November 1870	Phillip O'Connor Alice Cecilia Le Guay	Philip O'Connor Alice Caecilia McSweeney 💍 1870/5289	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 Minor	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 6 months	Catholic Chapel Shortland		Arizona M. Lemus, Guardian	8th November 1870	Rev. Jatten Nivardo
135	14th November 1870	Alfred Boyce Frances Ann Skudder	Alfred Boyer Frances Ann Skudder 💍 1870/5334	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 18	Grahamstown Grahamstown	2 years 3 years	George Street	Shortland	Frances S. Rudds, Her mother	14th November 1870	Rev. R. Lush
136	14 November 1870	Adam Williamson Julia Berry	Edward Wilkinson Julia Berry 💍 1870/4791	Bachelor Spinster	Musician	31 24	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 7 days
137	17 November 1870	James Reid Elizabeth McCollum	James Reid Elizabeth Graham McCollum 💍 1870/5220	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 22	Tapu Waiotaki	3 years 6 months	Dwelling house, Bruce Commander			17th November 1870	Rev. James Still
138	25 November 1870	Frederick Charles Lorber Susan Janet Hausen	Frederick Cater Susan Janet Hannken 💍 1870/3	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 27	Shortland Grahamstown	12 months 5 months	Dwelling house occupied by Mrs. C. Johnson, Shell Back Flat			12th December 1870	Rev. S. Wilson
139	30 November 1870	William Hugh Potts Jane Wilson	Willm Henry Potts Jane Wilson 💍 1870/5223 William Murray Mary Wilson 💍 1870/9054	Bachelor Widow	Miner	27 28	Grahamstown Grahamstown	2 years 3 years	Dwelling house occupied by Mrs. Jane Nelson, Tararu Flat			30th December 1870	Rev. Campbell

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).