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 189

District of Shortland Quarter ending Thirtieth of 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
403	1 July 1873	John Schaefer Anna Maria Scott	John Henry George Julius Schaefer Anna Maria Catherine Scott 💍 1873/9574	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 years 19 years	Shortland Grahamstown	3 1/2 years 2 years	St George's Church The Thames	73/1619	James Bird The Guardian	15 July 1873	Rev. V. Lush
404	11 July 1873	John W. Ford Christina Sutherland	John McLeod Christina Sutherland 💍 1873/9484	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 years 19 years	Waitekauri William Hill	4 years occupied by 5 months	The dwelling house	73/1588	Wm Sutherland The Guardian	11 July 1873	Rev. James Hill
405	16 July 1873	Joseph Woods Kate Taylor	Joseph Wood Kate Taylor 💍 1873/9577	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 years 19 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 years 1 month	St George's Church The Thames	73/1630	Wm Taylor The father	16 July 1873	Rev. V. Lush
406	21 July 1873	Alexander Campbell Susan Burns	Alexr Campbell Susan Burns 💍 1873/9487	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 20 years	Karaka Karaka	5 years occupied by 20 years	Karaka Thames	73/1589	John Burns The father	21 July 1873	Rev. James Hill
407	22 July 1873	Thomas Shanley Maryann Farmer	Thomas Stanley Mary Ann Farmer 💍 1873/9421	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 18 years	Tararu Tararu	5 1/2 years occupied by 4 years	Tararu Hape Thames	73/1566	James Farmer The Father	22 July 1873	Rev. John Crump
408	24 July 1873	James Preston Mary Ann Holton	James Preston Mary Ann Holton 💍 1873/9580	Widower Widow	Blacksmith	42 years 40 years	Grahamstown Grahamstown	5 years occupied by 5 years	The dwelling house	73/1621	James Preston	24 July 1873	Rev. V. Lush
409	28 July 1873	William Wilson Jane Ann Edwards	William Wilson Jane Anne Edwards 💍 1873/9583	Widower Spinster	Draper	31 years 19 years	Shortland Shortland	4 years 4 years	The dwelling house	73/1622	David Edwards The Father	28 July 1873	Rev. V. Lush
410	30 July 1873	Thomas Nilson Elizabeth Poole	Thomas Nilson Elizabeth Foot 💍 1873/9607	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 years 18 years	Thames Thames	3 days 3 days	The office of the Registrar Shortland district	73/1637	James H Poole The Father	13 August 1873	E. S. Porhos

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).