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 528

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
287	09 October 1871	John Henry Copp Catherine Steele		Bachelor Spinster	Baker	29 21	Timaru Timaru	3 years 8 months	Residence of John Simpson	see R.G. 32/331/205 re returns of this marriage	09 October 1871	Rev George Barclay
288	09 October 1871	William Mackey Margaret McGreger	William Macky Stephen Margaret McGregor 💍 1871/7725 William Storey Margaret Brown 💍 1871/6216	Bachelor Spinster	Sawman	35 29	Timaru Timaru	10 months 10 months	Wesleyan Chapel	310	09 October 1871	Rev Rainsford Bavin
289	10 October 1871	William Dale Charlotte Simpson	William Courtier Charlotte Snell 💍 1871/6390	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	30 26	Timaru Timaru	11 years 10 months	Residence of John Simpson	see R.G. 32/331/205 re return of this marriage	10 October 1871	Rev George Barclay
291	30 October 1871	William Collins Elizabeth Bentley	William Wills Elizabeth Ryan 💍 1871/8574 William Giddens Elizabeth Wakelin 💍 1871/9348 William Jones Elizabeth Hamling 💍 1871/4854 William Price Elizabeth Darby 💍 1871/8325 William Horwood Elizabeth Garner 💍 1871/8136 William Taylor Elizabeth James 💍 1871/9195 William Thomas Elizabeth Buckman 💍 1871/7335 William Madams Elizabeth Burns 💍 1871/8046 William Jordan Elizabeth Hatherton 💍 1871/5811 William Standen Elizabeth Jones 💍 1871/4566 William Albert Commins Elizabeth Stack 💍 1871/8925 William Corner Elizabeth Hagon Crowther 💍 1871/8691	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker Dressmaker	21 21	Timaru Timaru	1 year 8 months	Residence of Jas Sinclair		30 October 1871	Rev Rainsford Bavin
292	08 November 1871	William Heath Margaret Blair	William Sheath Margaret Blair 💍 1871/7671	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 32	Timaru Timaru	5 days 4 days	Residence of Revd Foster near Timaru	M 1/2 292	08 November 1871	Rev George Foster
293	09 November 1871	Andrew Veitch Mary Ann Tubman		Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	27 22	Timaru Timaru	2 years 6 months	Residence of W Bowers	see R.G. 32/331/205 re return of this marriage	09 November 1871	Rev George Barclay
294	10 November 1871	George Walter Coesmer Elizabeth Barkley	George Walter Creemer Elizabeth Barkley 💍 1871/7668	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Cook	27 23	Timaru Timaru	6 years 3 months	Residence of Mr Metherall near Timaru	M 1/2 293	10 November 1871	Rev George Foster
295	06 December 1871	William Bormer Bridget Corkary	William Beaird Bridget Taggart 💍 1871/6888 William Sexton Bridget Doody 💍 1872/6089	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 24	Timaru Timaru	5 years 4 years	Catholic Chapel Timaru	M 1/2 308	06 December 1871	Rev Jean Baptist Chataigner

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).