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 182

District of Shortland Quarter ending 31 March 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
353	24 January 1873	Isaac Philip Leak Mary Ann White	Isaac Philip Leah Mary Ann White 💍 1873/10834	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	31 years 22 years	Shortland Shortland	5 years 5 years	St George's Church, the Thames	73/2053		25 January 1873	Revd V. Lush
354	28 January 1873	Francis Gregory Welch Elizabeth Ann Rickit	Francis Gregory Welch Elizabeth Ann Ricket 💍 1873/10831	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	23 years 22 years	Shortland Shortland	12 months 3 years	St George's Church	73/2057		30 January 1873	Revd V. Lush
355	28 January 1873	Michael Turney Mary McDonnell	Michael Turney Mary McDonald 💍 1873/5635	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 years 23 years	Grahamstown Parawai	4 years 1.5 years	the Roman Catholic Chapel, Shortland	73/278		28 January 1873	Rev. Father Nivardo
356	10 February 1873	David Pamm Helen Hutchinson	David Camm Helen Hutchinson 💍 1873/10828	Bachelor Widow	Quarryman	45 years 50 years	Hape Hape	4 years 4 years	St George's Church, The Thames	73/2053		10 February 1873	Revd V. Lush
357	10 February 1873	William Henry Burch Esther Cartwright	William Henry Burch Esther Cartwright 💍 1873/6346	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 years 18 years	Karaka Karaka	5 years 18 months	the dwelling house occupied by John Cartwright, Karaka, The Thames	731/520	John Cartwright, "The Father"	10 February 1873	Revd L. Jones
358	12 February 1873	John Stafford Jane Alma Sustins	John Stafford Jane Alina Sustinz 💍 1873/9460	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 years 18 years	Waiotahi Waiotahi	3 years 6 months	the dwelling house occupied by Rev James Hill, Shortland	73/1580		27 February 1873	Rev James Hill
359	15 February 1873	William Johnson Georgina Isabella Emily Clarke	William Johnson Georgina Isabella Emily Clarke 💍 1873/5644	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	30 years 21 years	Karaka Karaka	3 years 5 years	In the dwelling house occupied by William Johnson, Thames	73/287		15 February 1873	Rev. B. b. Butland
360	17 February 1873	Thomas Scott Sarah Frelan	Thomas Scott Sarah Frelan 💍 1873/9457	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 years 17 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	4 years 4 years	St James Church, the Thames	73/1578	Jane Goard, "The Mother"	17 February 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).