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 162

District of Shortland 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
200	2 August 1871	William Henry Ellis Susannah Fisher	William Henry Ellis Susannah Fisher 💍 1871/4509	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	31 19	Grahamstown Karaka	2½ years 3 years	St George's Church	201	Susannah Fisher, "The Father"	2 August 1871	Rev. F. Lush
201	9 August 1871	Richard John Tregear Harriet Jackson	Richard John Tregowith Harriet Jackson 💍 1871/4548	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	32 22	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 4 months	The dwelling house occupied by Richard John Tregear	201/144		9 August 1871	Rev. James Buller
202	14 August 1871	Michael Argan Mary Ann Couron	Michael Ryan Mary Ann Conroy 💍 1871/4587	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 21	Karaka Grahamstown	2 years 18 months	The Roman Catholic Church	144	Mary Ann Couron, Father	14 August 1871	Rev. Futter Edwards
203	15 August 1871	Joseph Henry Davis Agnes McMahon	Joseph Henry James Agnes McPherson Baird 💍 1871/6771	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	36 35	Haps Creek Haps Creek	2 years 2 years	The dwelling house occupied by Joseph Henry Davis	72/982		29 August 1871	Rev. James Skill
204	21 August 1871	William Howard Hanley Emily Ford	William Henry Hamley Emily Ford 💍 1871/4512	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 20	Shortland Shortland	3 years 5 years	St George's Church	202	William Howard Hanley, "The Father"	21 August 1871	Rev. F. Lush
205	31 August 1871	Alfred Thomas Gilmour Agnes Gilmour	Edward Thomas Price Agnes Gilmour 💍 1871/4080	Bachelor Spinster	Non Moulder	26 18	Auckland Auckland	5 years 5 years	At the dwelling house of David Bruce, Mechanics Bay, Auckland	50	Alfred Thomas Gilmour, "The Father"	31 August 1871	Rev. David Bruce
206	5 September 1871	James Richards Catherine Crew	James Richards Catherine Crew 💍 1871/4590	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 22	Karaka Shortland	2 months 12 months	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	144/22		5 September 1871	Rev. Futter Edwards
207	18 September 1871	Alexander Paton Eleanor Lowell	Alexr Paton Eleanor Cowell Renwick 💍 1871/6774	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	26 22	Shortland Shortland	2 years 5 years	St James' Church	22/983		18 September 1871	Rev. James Skill

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).