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 411

District of Honea Quarter ending 30 September 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
31	10 July 1871	Thos Healey Catherine Sullivan	Thomas Healy Catherine Sullivan 💍 1871/3912 George Carter Catherine Sullivan 💍 1871/5523	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 23	Marsden Goldsboro	18 months 9 months	R.C. Church	M71/550		July 1871	Rev J. A. Fontainoir
32	14 July 1871	Jas Griffith Bridget Carey	Matthew Griffith Bridget Carey 💍 1871/8271	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 26	Stafford Beach Stafford	2 years Do	R.C. Church	497		July 1871	Rev. Martin
33	18 July 1871	Andrew Nolan Mary Spillane	Andrew Nolan Mary Spillane 💍 1871/9150	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 24	Stafford Do	4 years 1 year	R.C. Church Stafford	492		July 1871	Rev. J. A. Fontainoir
34	10 August 1871	Edw & Joseph Lord Ellen Farim	Edward Iveagh Lord Ellen Trim 💍 1871/7497	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	28 28	Elch Road Stafford Beach	3 months 6 weeks	Church of England Stafford	735	Father couldn't be found	August 1871	Rev. A. Credd & Harper
35	23 August 1871	Wm Chas Roberts Annie O'Thaker	William Clark Roberts Annie O'Maher 💍 1871/5511	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	31 26	Paparoa Hokitika	2 years 1 month	R.C. Church Hokitika	71/348		August 1871	Rev. Martin
36	4 September 1871	Josh Burke Catherine Sently		Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 25	Beach Stafford	3 years 9 months	R.C. Church Stafford	M72/498		September 1871	Rev. Martin
37	22 September 1871	Jno Stewart Drivon Mary Anne Connor	John Dewat Dixon Mary Ann Connor 💍 1871/7443	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	34 23	Franks Gully Hokitika	3 weeks 15 months	Office of the Registrar Stafford	72/21	Not yet issued
38	26 September 1871	Thos Burns Honora Guilfoyle	Thomas Burns Honora Guilfoyle 💍 1871/5514	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper Hotel Keeper	28 22	Teramakau Do	5 days 2 years	Fountain of Friendship Teramakau	M71/54		September 28th	Rev. Mailing Hokitika
39	28 September 1871	Jas Jameson Trustees Jane King	Thomas Jameson Frances Jane Payne 💍 1871/8277	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Do	32 17	Stafford Do	5 years 14 days	Registrar's Office Stafford	M72/499	Maria King, mother	September 29th	P. A. Smyth

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).