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 227

District of Cambridge 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
99	31 March 1873	Richard Mills Mary Elizabeth Webber	Richard Mills Mary Elizabeth Webber 💍 1873/7642	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	Full Minor	Hamilton Hamilton	2 years 9 years	Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	73/962	Henry Webber, Father	14 April 1873	Revd F. C. Lloyd
100	4 April 1873	Henry Quick Louisa Pryde	Henry Quick Louisa Pryde 💍 1873/6058	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	Full Full	Taupiri Taupiri	3 days 3 days	at the Office of the Registrar, Hamilton	73/422		4 April 1873	B C Beale, Registrar
101	12 April 1873	John Wilson Mary Jane Murliff	John Wilson Mary Jane Nurliss 💍 1873/7639	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	Full Minor	Hamilton Hamilton	3 months 8 years	at the Episcopal-palian Church, Hamilton	73/961	William Murliff, Father	12 April 1873	Revd Ed Lloyd
102	5 April 1873	John Goyle Margaret Taylor	John Coyle Margaret Taylor 💍 1873/6013	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Domestic Servant	Full Full	Hamilton Hamilton	1 year 1 year	at the Catholic Church, Hamilton	73/407		19 April 1873	B C Beale, Registrar, Revd J. P. Moynahan
103	5 May 1873	William Gibbons Harp Jane Walker	William Gibbons Harp Jane Walker 💍 1873/6040	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	Full Minor	Piako Piako	6 months 1 year	at the house of Mr J. Walker, Piako	73/416	James Walker, Father	14 May 1873	Revd H. L. Davies
104	15 May 1873	William Henry Sinderby Nicholls Lillie Ardley Gundry	William Henry Sinderley Nicholls Lillie Ardley Gundry 💍 1873/7630	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	Full Minor	Ngarnawahia Ngarnawahia	2 1/2 yrs 3 days	at the Episcopal-palian Church, Hamilton	73/958	Samuel Gundry, Father	15 May 1873	Revd F. C. Lloyd
105	3 June 1873	William Harrington Jane Stewart	William Harrington Jane Stewart 💍 1873/6061 William Barsdell Janet Stewart 💍 1873/5653	Bachelor Widow	Sawyer	Full Full	Tamahere Tamahere	3 months 3 years	at the Office of the Registrar, Hamilton	73/423		3 June 1873	B C Beale, Registrar
106	12 June 1873	Frank Barker Rebecca Drabble	Frank Barker Rebecca Drabble 💍 1873/4579	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	Full Minor	Alexandra Rangiaowahia	9 yrs 3 days	at the Episcopal-palian Church, Ohaupo	73/1230	Robert Drabble, Father	12 June 1873	Revd L. C. Brady
107	27 June 1873	George James Parker Eliza Smitson	George James Parker Eliza Smithson 💍 1873/7633	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Domestic Servant	Full Minor	Hamilton Hamilton	1 month 1 month	at the Episcopal-palian Church, Hamilton	73/959	Certificate or Declaration of no person within Colony having authority to give consent	27 June 1873	Revd F. C. Lloyd

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).