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 734

District of Wakatipu 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
94	17 October 1870	Charles Smith Mary Buchanan	Charles Smith Mary Buchanan 💍 1870/9261	Widower Widow	Farmer Servant	47 46	Hayes Lake Hayes Lake, Arrow	7 years 2 months	Private Residence of Mr John Niche, Hayes Lake	17 October 1870	Rev. Richard Coffey
95	17 October 1870	David Murray Mackay Harriet Mary Ross	Donald Murray MacKay Harriet Mary Ross 💍 1870/9195	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	26 25	Queenstown Clyde	4 years 6 weeks	The Manse, Dunstan	17 October 1870	Rev. Mr Ross
96	25 October 1870	Thomas Hicks Ellen McBride	Thomas Hicks Ellen McBride 💍 1870/9249	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant	39 26	Queenstown Queenstown	7 years 6 years	Private Residence of Mr J W Robertson, Queenstown	25 October 1870	Rev. Father Billiard
97	28 October 1870	Charles Archer Catherine Grainger	Charles Archer Cathrine Granger 💍 1870/9264	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 28	Frankton Frankton	2 months 2 weeks	At the residence of James Corbett, Frankton	28 October 1870	Revd. Richard Coffey
98	15 November 1870	Josiah Mitchinson Grace Jenkins	Josiah Mitchinson Grace Jenkins 💍 1870/3960	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 24	Bendigo near Cromwell Queenstown	12 years 7 years	Church of England, Queenstown	15 November 1870	Revd. Richard Coffey
99	29 November 1870	Archibald McDonald Elizabeth Charlotte Pilgrim	Archibald McDonald Elizabeth Charlotte Pilgrim 💍 1870/9267	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 18	Queenstown Queenstown	4 years 4 months	Church of England, Queenstown	29 November 1870	Rev. Richard Coffey
100	12 December 1870	Thomas Luckie Maria Birmingham	Thomas Luckie Maria Birmingham 💍 1870/9246	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	35 25	Queenstown Kingston	2 years 3 years	Private Residence of Mr. John Campbell, Queenstown	12 December 1870	Rev. Donald Ross

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).