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 186

District of Shortland Quarter ending 30 June 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
379	30 April 1873	Henry Thornton Rose Emily Bach	Henry Thornton Price Emily Bach 💍 1873/10993	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	32 years 20 years	Shortland Auckland	5 years 12 months	St Matthews Church Auckland	73/1212	Richard Bach, the father	16 May 1873	Rev. David Jones
380	30 April 1873	Robert Easton Mary Hewett	Robert Easter Mary Hewett 💍 1873/9475	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	27 years 21 years	Waitekauri Grahamstown	5 years 15 months	Dwelling house occupied by Mr James Hill	73/1585	Mr James Hill	30 April 1873	Rev. James Hill
381	2 May 1873	John Robert Perry Harrietta Mary Dunphy	John Robert Perry Harriette Mary Drury 💍 1873/5920	Bachelor Spinster	M.A.	35 years 32 years	Auckland Shortland	5 days 15 months	The Chapel Bishopscourt Auckland	73/374		2 May 1873	Rev. D.D. Price
382	6 May 1873	Thomas Reid Maria Thomas	Thomas Reid Maria Thomas 💍 1873/9415	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 years 20 years	Parawai Pape	5 years 6 years	At the house of Mr John Crimp, Wesleyan Minister	73/1564	William Thomas, the father	20 May 1873	Rev. John Crimp
383	7 May 1873	Alexander Ross Abia Eddowes	Alexander Rofs Abia Eddowes 💍 1873/9622	Bachelor Widow	Miner	32 years 34 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	2 years 4 years	The dwelling house occupied by Edwin Bennett, Karaka Road Thames	73/1636		23 May 1873	Rev. James Hill
384	13 May 1873	Richard Gardiner Jeffers Ellen Backhurst	Richard Gardiner Jeffrey Ellen Backhurst 💍 1873/9598	Prisoner Spinster	Farmer	39 years 33 years	The Thames The Thames	5 days 5 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Shortland district	73/1628	The official in charge	13 May 1873	J. P. Porbin
385	15 May 1873	John McMurthy Mary Pearce	John Lambert McCarthy Mary Pearce 💍 1873/9529	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	26 years 24 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	12 months 16 months	Roman Catholic Chapel Shortland	73/1604		15 May 1873	Rev. Father Richards
386	15 May 1873	Thomas Donovan Emma Railsford	Thomas Donovan Emma Brailsford 💍 1873/9514	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 years 24 years	Shortland Shortland	6 years 1 1/2 years	The dwelling house occupied by Mr James Polley, Store Shortland	73/1599		30 May 1873	Rev. William Jones

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).