Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 159

District of Shortland Quarter ending 30 June 1871

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
182	2 June 1871	John Francis Lawrann Mary Ellen Morgan	John Francis Laurance Mary Ellen Mooney 💍 1871/4497	Bachelor Spinster	Sharebroker	26 17	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 1 day	St George's Church	M1497		2 June 1871	Rev. J. Lush
183	15 June 1871	Charles Harrison Clara Nimmo	John Hunter Harrison Clara Ninnis 💍 1871/4533	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	26 20	Shortland Shortland	3 days 3 years	St. Paul's Church	M1411	James Nimmo, Father	16 June 1871	Rev. James Butler
184	5 June 1871	George Reed Mary Ann Mugford	George Reid Mary Ann Mudford 💍 1871/4539 George Bird Mary Ann Steele 💍 1871/7065	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	33 22	Shortland Shortland	3 years 10 days	St. James Church, Karaka Creek	M1409		5 June 1871	Rev. B. Lush
185	6 June 1871	John Barker Maria Bach	John Barker Maria Bach 💍 1871/4500	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 19	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 10 months	St George's Church	M1410	Richard Bach or The Father	6 June 1871	Rev. J. Lush
186	9 June 1871	Thomas Mydd Dudley Eliza Ann Moorcraft	Thomas Alfred Dudley Eliza Ann Moorcraft 💍 1871/4503	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 20	Grahamstown Grahamstown	4 years 3 years	St George's Church, Shortland	M1412	Charles Moorcraft or "his father"	9 June 1871	Rev. Laws Butler
187	9 June 1871	Adam Hombly Martha Buller Lewis	Edwin Hornsby Martha Bullen Lewis 💍 1871/4536	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	30 26	Grahamstown Grahamstown	4 years 2 years 2 months	In the house occupied by Charles Stringfellow	M1413		9 June 1871	Rev. B. Wilson
188	21 June 1871	Arthur Clarke Matilda Hurley	Edwin Clarke Matilda Hurley 💍 1871/4569	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 21	Grahamstown Shortland	3 years 3 years	Res. S. Wilson	M1421	John Hurley	21 June 1871	Rev. S. Wilson
189	24 June 1871	John Cordeau Ellen Phillips	John Endean Ellen Phillips 💍 1871/4560	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 18	Grahamstown Grahamstown	2 years 2 years	At the office of the Registrar, Shortland	M1421b		24 June 1871

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).