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 182

District of Shortland Quarter ending 30 June 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
104	5 May 1870	Henry Johnson Bridget Roche	Henry Olson Bridget Roache 💍 1870/5274	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 years 26 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	1 year 4 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Shortland	his father	24 May 1870	Rev. Fatter Rivards
105	6 May 1870	John Bottomore Fullyames	John Bottomomore Mary Ann Fulljames 💍 1870/5349	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	21 years 24 years	Grahamstown Shortland	2 years 3 years	The Dwelling house occupied by James Harvey		21 May 1870	Rev. C. Laws Wilson
106	18 May 1870	John Pittar Lelda Penelope Turner	John Pittar Zilda Penelope Turner 💍 1870/5361	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 22 years	Grahamstown Shortland	1 year 1 month	The office of the Registrar, Shortland		18 May 1870	Armand Henry Powis
107	30 May 1870	Charles William Soutry Rebecca Anderson	Charles William Gentry Rebecca Anderson 💍 1870/3827	Bachelor Spinster	Lapidary	24 years 20 years	Shortland Shortland	1 year 3 years	Presbyterian Church, Shortland		30 May 1870	Rev. James Hill
108	11 June 1870	John Pike Mary Davison	John McPike Mary Davison 💍 1870/5277	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	23 years 19 years	Hastings Hastings	2 years 1 year	Dwelling house occupied by William Kelman, Hastings	Thomas Davison, father	11 June 1870	Rev. Fatter Rivards
109	13 June 1870	Thomas Edmond Thrupp Charlotte Lydia Elrin	Thomas Edmund Thrupp Charlotte Lydia Elwin 💍 1870/3848	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 years 21 years	Karaka Karaka	3 years 16 months	The dwelling house occupied by Rev. James Hill, Resedams Hill		13 June 1870	Rev. James Hill
110	14 June 1870	Charles Palmer Lettitia Beckingham	Charles Palmer Ruth Beckmann 💍 1870/5199	Bachelor Widow	Bootmaker	38 years 38 years	Shortland Grahamstown	2 years 8 years	The dwelling house occupied by Charles Palmer, Shortland		14 June 1870	Rev. C. Laws Wilson
111	14 June 1870	Robert McConnell Mary Jane Chute	Robert McCormack Mary Jane Chute 💍 1870/5325	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 years 20 years	Shortland Shortland	2 years 11 months	The Church of England, Shortland	The Mother	14 June 1870	Rev. C. P. Lush
112	15 June 1870	Duncan Campbell Hannah Remnant	Duncan Campbell Hannah Remnant 💍 1870/5196	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	29 years 18 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	12 months 5 days	Dwelling house situate at Tookens Flat occupied by Wesleyan Bekin, The Thames	We Friend's	15 June 1870	Rev. A. W. Ridsdale

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).