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 191

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
419	25 August 1873	John Adamson Elizabeth Christina Smith	John Adamson Eliza Christina Smith 💍 1873/9502	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	29 20	Hauraki Hauraki	5 years 3 years	At the dwelling house occupied by John Smith, Hauraki Saw Mills, Thames	73/1594	John Smith, the father	25 August 1873	Rev James Hill
420	25 August 1873	David Adamson Hannah Jane Smith	David Adamson Hannah Jane Smith 💍 1873/4605	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	25 17	Hauraki Hauraki	5 years 3 years	The dwelling house occupied by John Smith, Hauraki Saw mills, Thames	73/1593	John Smith, the Father	25 August 1873	Rev James Hill
421	26 August 1873	James Garden Catherine Hastings	James Garden Catherine Hastings 💍 1873/9505	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	26 26	Opahamotoro Manukau	4 years 1 year	The dwelling house occupied by the Rev James Hill, Karaka, Thames	73/1596	Mr Butland	26 August 1873	Rev James Hill
422	30 August 1873	George McCorratt Mary Ann Hassalt	George McCowatt Mary Ann Hassatt 💍 1873/9508	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 18	Waiotahi Waiotahi	5 years 4 years	The dwelling house occupied by David Robertson, Waiotahi, Thames	73/1599	Bridget Robertson, mother	30 August 1873	Rev James Hill
423	02 September 1873	Edward Pearson Elizabeth Bond	Edward Pearson Elizabeth Bond 💍 1873/9592	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 17	Karaka Moanataiari	5 years 5 years	St George's Church, Thames	73/1626	William Bond, the father	04 September 1873	Rev J. V. Lush
424	05 September 1873	Frederick John Butland Margaret Bargrove	Frederick John Rickard Margaret Bargrove 💍 1873/9619	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Teacher	29 22	Waiotahi Opahamotown	3 years 3 years	In the Congregational Church, Mackay Street, Thames	73/1635		05 September 1873	Rev R. C. Butland
425	08 September 1873	William Baker Ellen Jarvis Woodcock	William Baker Ellen Jarvis Woodcock 💍 1873/9595	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 20	Shortland Shortland	4 years 4 years	St George's Church, Thames	73/1627	Eliza Newman Her mother	08 September 1873	Rev J. V. Lush
426	10 September 1873	James Rowe Louisa Smith	James Rowe Louisa Smith 💍 1873/9427	Bachelor Spinster	Instructor	23 20	Moanataiari near Thames Moanataiari near Thames	4 years 2 years	The dwelling house occupied by William Rowe, Moanataiari, Thames	73/1568	Richard Henry Smith, the father	10 September 1873	Rev John Crump

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).