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 188

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
140	5 December 1870	James McIlhaney Margaret Miller	James McIlhaney Margaret Miller 💍 1870/5337	Bachelor Spinster	Amalgamation	27 23	Kurunui Waiokaraka	2 1/2 years 2 years	St George's Church, Shortland, The Thames		5 December 1870	Revd V. Lush
141	7 December 1870	John Farrell Eliza Brown	John Farrell Eliza Brown 💍 1870/5229	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Milliner	27 22	Shortland Shortland	3 years 2 1/2 years	The dwelling house occupied by Mr Samuel Hetherington, Pollan Street, Shortland		7 December 1870	Revd James Hill
142	12 December 1870	John Charles Young Catherine Regan	John Charles Young Catherine Regan 💍 1870/5292	Bachelor Spinster	Native Interpreter	26 22	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 3 years	The dwelling house occupied by Miss Cath Regan, Grahamstown		12 December 1870	Revd Father Nivards
143	14 December 1870	Nicholas Julian Rusden Anne Elizabeth McReynolds	Nicholas Julian Rusden Ann Elizabeth McReynolds 💍 1870/5343	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	23 20	Karaka Karaka	3 years 18 months	St George's Church, Shortland	Annie McReynolds, "The mother"	14 December 1870	Revd V Lush
144	14 December 1870	Charles Berry Ann Robinson	Charles Berry Ann Robinson 💍 1870/5340	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Waitress	22 21	Tararu Grahamstown	3 years 1 year	St George's Church, Shortland		14 December 1870	Revd V Lush
145	17 December 1870	Alfred Edlington Jane Owens	Alfred Edlington Jane Owens 💍 1870/5226	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	37 21	Tararu Tararu	2 years 2 years	The dwelling house occupied by Mr James Elwarth, Tararu Road, Thames		17 December 1870	Revd James Hill
146	19 December 1870	Nicholas Price Carver Eunice Leonora Hoy McCartie	Nicholas Price Carver Eunice Leonora Hoy McCartie 💍 1870/3842	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer & Surveyor	28 21	Shortland Shortland	3 years 1 year	St George's Church, Shortland		19 December 1870	Revd V. Lush
147	21 December 1870	William Wilkinson Elizabeth Longdon	William Wilkinson Elizabeth Longden 💍 1870/5373	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	30 28	Shortland Shortland	3 years 6 days	The Wesleyan Chapel, Shortland		21 December 1870	Rev. J. Butler

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).