Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 194

District of Shortland Quarter ending 31 December 1873

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
438	29 October 1873	Charles David Lindsay McKian Louisa Helen Broomus	Charles David Lindsay McLean Louisa Helen Frances Sullivan 💍 1873/10903	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 years 19 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 years 3 years	Dwelling house occupied by Hogan	73/2080	The Mother, Grahamstown	2 October 1873	Rev. James Hill
439	29 October 1873	William Syms Esther Martin	William Syms Esther Martin 💍 1873/9433	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	31 years 18 years	Karaka Karaka	3 years 3 years	Dwelling house occupied by William Martin, Normanby	73/1571	William Martin, the Father	12 November 1873	Rev. Father Martin
440	4 November 1873	Thomas Robert Jones Eliza Kerr Scott	Thomas Robert Jones Eliza Kerr Scott 💍 1873/9436	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 16 years	Shortland Karaka	5 years 3 years	Dwelling house occupied by Scott, Shortland	73/1571	Robert Scott, the Father	11 November 1873	Rev. John Crump
441	11 November 1873	George Robert Opie Jessie Rebecca Head	George Robins Opie Jessie Rebecca Head 💍 1873/9439	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 16 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	4 years 4 years	Dwelling house occupied by Head, Shortland	73/1572	John Head, the Father	11 November 1873	Rev. John Crump
442	4 November 1873	Peter Henry Nightingale Mary Ann Haddrae	Peter Henry Nightingale Mary Ann Naddrae 💍 1873/4817	Bachelor Spinster	Waterman Domestic	25 years 21 years	Shortland Shortland	5 years 1 year	Dwelling house occupied by Hill, Shortland	73/2081	[UNCLEAR]	17 November 1873	Rev. James Hill
443	4 November 1873	Edward George Styles Cecilia Brown	Edward George Styles Cecilia Brown 💍 1873/9613	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Midwives	31 years full age	Grahamstown Grahamstown	6 years 6 years	In the Offices, Shortland	73/1633	[UNCLEAR]	19 November 1873	Registrar Shortland Love District
444	21 November 1873	William Anderson Mary Sullivan	William Anderson Mary Sullivan 💍 1873/11281	Bachelor Spinster	Music Domestic	29 years 21 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	1 year 1 year	Roman Catholic Chapel, Shortland	73/2215	[UNCLEAR]	26 November 1873	Rev. Father Norris
445	27 November 1873	John Leox Elizabeth Foulgrain	John Cox Elizabeth Poulgrain 💍 1873/10534	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 18 years	Karaka Tararu	3 months 6 years	Saint George's Church, The Thames	73/1948	George Foulgrain, the Father	16 December 1873	Rev. J. Lush

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).