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 190

District of Shortland Quarter ending 30 September 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
411	30 July 1873	Francis McCormick Agnes Laughlin	Francis McCormick Agnes Loughlin 💍 1873/9490	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	29 years 19 years	Tararu Grahamstown	5 years 5 years	Dwelling House occupied by Alice Laughlin, Grahamstown	73/1590	Alice Laughlin, the mother	30 July 1873	Rev. James Hill
412	6 August 1873	William Moore Eliza Tregoweth	William Moore Eliza Tregoweth 💍 1873/9586	Bachelor Spinster	Amalgamator Domestic	29 years 19 years	Kararu Kara Na	4 years 18 months	George's Church near the Thames	73/1620	Richard Tregoweth, the Guardian	6 August 1873	Rev. Lush
413	7 August 1873	John Martin Amelia Copland	John Martin Amelia Copland 💍 1873/9493	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	24 years 19 years	Grahamstown Shortland	12 years 18 months	The dwelling home occupied by her father James Hill, Shortland	73/1591	James Hill, the father	7 August 1873	Rev. James Hill
414	8 August 1873	William Coughlan Elizabeth Scott	William Coughland Elizabeth Scott 💍 1873/9589	Bachelor Spinster	A.L. Force	33 years 25 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	3 years 12 years	George's Church, Thames	73/1624	Charles Scott, the Father	8 August 1873	Rev. Lush
415	12 August 1873	Neil Stewart Brown Charlotte Scotter	Neil Stewart Brown Charlotte Scotter 💍 1873/9496	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 years 19 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 years 2 1/2 years	The dwelling house occupied by James Heanes, Grahamstown	73/1592	Edward Scotter, the Father	12 August 1873	Rev. James Hill
416	12 August 1873	William Charles Hastings Francis Millar	William Charles Hastings Frances Millar 💍 1873/9610	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 years 18 years	Waiotahi Toya	5 years 5 years	The office of the Registrar, Shortland	73/1632		12 August 1873	Registrar
417	20 August 1873	William Duff Elizabeth Bennett	William McDuff Elizabeth Bennett 💍 1873/4712	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	28 years 27 years	Hape Shortland	5 years 3 years	Church, Shortland	73/1625	[UNCLEAR]	20 August 1873	Rev. Lush
418	22 August 1873	William Davis Bridget Lloyd	William Davies Bridget Loyd 💍 1873/9499	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	40 years 29 years	Mount Pleasant Mount Pleasant	5 years 4 years	The dwelling house occupied by Miss Bridget Lloyd, Mount Pleasant, Shortland	73/1593		22 August 1873	Rev. James Hill

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).