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 187

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
387	19 May 1873	Robert Arbury Cathrinis Keating	Robert Arbury Catherine Keating 💍 1873/9532	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 21	Shortland Shortland	6 years 14 months	The Roman Catholic Chapel Shortland	73/1605		19 May 1873	Rev Father Tivardo
388	19 May 1873	George William Logdon Margaret Anna Gavin	George Wm Lowson Margaret Anne Gavin 💍 1873/9535	Bachelor Spinster	Organica	28 21	Grahamstown Shortland	2 years 1 year	The Roman Catholic Chapel Shortland	73/1606		19 May 1873	Rev Father Tivardo
389	20 May 1873	David Patter Maria Rome	David Patten Maria Rowe 💍 1873/9547	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 21	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 years 2 years	The Roman Catholic Chapel Shortland	73/1610		20 June 1873	Rev Father Tivardo
390	2 June 1873	James Garvey Margaret Mangana	James Garvey Margaret Mangan 💍 1873/9538	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 17	Grahamstown Grahamstown	4 years 4 years	The Roman Catholic Chapel Shortland	73/1607	John Mangana	3 June 1873	Rev Father Tivardo
391	12 June 1873	William Joseph Constant Fanny Grubb	William Joseph Constant Fanny Grubb 💍 1873/9478	Widower Spinster	Publican	38 18	Shortland Shortland	5 years 4 years	At the dwelling house occupied by Mr R James Hill Shortland	73/1586	Richard Grubb, the Father	12 June 1873	Rev James Hill
392	12 June 1873	John Pearson Olira Hiels	John Pearson Eliza Hicks 💍 1873/9601	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	33 26	Grahamstown Shortland	5 years 7 months	The Office of the Registrar Shortland	73/1629		13 June 1873	R H Porters
393	13 June 1873	Richard Edward Praham Susan Primley	Richard Edward Graham Susan Grimley 💍 1873/9541	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 20	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 months 4 years	The Roman Catholic Chapel Shortland	73/1608		13 June 1873	Rev Father Tivardo
394	14 June 1873	Richard Mann Hodgdon Sarah Ann Hodgdon	Richard Mann Sarah Ann Hodgson 💍 1873/9616	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic	32 29	Shortland Karaka	6 weeks 1 week	The dwelling house occupied by Mr Cook Karaka Thames	73/1634		14 June 1873	Rev E C Boulton

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).