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 271

District of Wellington 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
40	1 April 1873	Archibald McEachern Elizabeth Young	Archibald McEachen Elizabeth Young 💍 1873/10375	Bachelor Spinster	Printer d: late W Young, Mechanic, Taranaki	23 22	Wellington Wellington	6 mo 6 mo	House of McRudman, Ghuznee Street	73/1894		1 April 1873	Rev J S Smalley
41	1 April 1873	David Knight Elizabeth Ann Copeland	David Knight Elizabeth Ann Copeland 💍 1873/5803	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer d: late Copeland, Farmer	21 21	Hutt Hutt	3 yrs 21 yrs	House of Susan Copeland, Hutt	73/333		8 April 1873	Rev G S Harper
42	4 April 1873	William Tappin Emily Barrow	William Tappin Emily Barrow 💍 1873/10237	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker d: S Barrow, Sheepfarmer	28 22	Pahautanui Inrokini Valley	10 1/2 yrs 2 yrs	House of Rev Mois	73/1847		4 April 1873	Rev J Mois
43	10 April 1873	John Taylor Marshall Amelia Caroline Blundell	John Taylor Marshall Amelia Caroline Blundell 💍 1873/10408	Bachelor Spinster	Sub Inspector AC d: of Blundell, Wellington	31 20	Wellington Wellington	11 mo many yrs	St Peter's Church, Te Aro	73/1906	V Ven Blundell, Father	10 April 1873	Ven Archdn Stock R
44	12 April 1873	George Key Charlotte Clifton	George Key Charlotte Clifton 💍 1873/10102	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Laborer	22 19	Pipitea Street, Wellington Ohiro	18 yrs 19 yrs	House of Jane Key, Pipitea Street	73/1802	Mary Ashort, Mother	26 April 1873	Rev W H Dean
45	15 April 1873	George Peake Harriet Elizabeth Nicholls	George Peake Harriet Elizabeth Nicholls 💍 1873/10288	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer d: Rev C H S Nicholls, Upper Hutt	25 21	Hutt Upper Hutt	8 dys 2 yrs	St John's Church, Upper Hutt	73/1864		15 April 1873	Rev C H S Nicholls
46	15 April 1873	Walter Beet Bridget Smith	Walter Best Bridget Smith 💍 1873/4742	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher d: Jas Smith, Wellington, Carpenter	23 22	Wellington Wellington, Still Street	7 mo 4 yrs	Roman Catholic Chapel, Still Street	73/1883		15 April 1873	Rev J B Petit Jean

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).