Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 363

District of Cobden Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
154	4 April 1872	James Stewart Eliza Ann Evans	James Stewart Elizabeth Evans 💍 1872/5960	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Coal Creek Flat Do	3 months 5 years	At Bridegrooms Residence	712	Evan Evans, father	4 April 1872	Rev. -- M. Jacobs
155	6 April 1872	William Chalman Mary McKegg		Bachelor Widow	Dairyman None	30 30	Coal Creek Flat Greymouth	2 years 18 months	At Mrs Rowes Greymouth	1486		9 April 1872	Rev -- Taylor
156	25 April 1872	Frederick Israel Davis Helena Jane Griffin	Frederick Israel Davis Hellenor Jane Crispen 💍 1872/7424	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 21	Helm Creek Greymouth	3 years 9 months	Presb. Church House Greymouth	72/1937		26 April 1872	Registrar Greymouth
157	1 June 1872	Patrick Molloy Mary O'Halleron	Patrick Molloy Mary O'Haloran 💍 1872/5657	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 24	Twelve Mile Landing Twelve Mile Landing	2 years 12 months	Roman Cath. Presby. Twelve Mile Landing	72/1941		1 June 1872	Rev. -- Perkiss
158	7 June 1872	William Adam Catherine Jane Nedwill	William Adams Catherine Jane Nedwill 💍 1872/8912	Widower Spinster	Miner	24 18	Noburn Noburn	18 months 6 months	Registrar Office Cobden	72/2157		7 June 1872	Registrar Cobden
159	19 June 1872	Samuel Shankland Catherine Cronin	Samuel Frankpitt Catherine Cronan 💍 1872/5651	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	35 29	Red Jacks Red Jacks	7 years 5 months	At the Roman Catholic Chapel Greymouth	72/1735		June 19	Rev. -- Belliard
160	19 June 1872	John Galloway Annie O'Shea	John Galway Annie O'Shea 💍 1872/3981	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 24	Norton Hokitika	2 years 2 years	The Roman Catholic Chapel Hokitika	72/1340		June 19	Rev. -- Peterkins
161	25 June 1872	Samuel Webb Mary Ann Secher	Fabez Webb Mary Ann Rogers 💍 1872/4704	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 17	Nelson Creek Do	4 years 4 years	Roman Catholic School House Ahaura	72/1946	Richard Secher, father	25 June 1872	Rev. -- Peterkins

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).