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 301

District of Wanganui 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
51	10 June 1873	John Wilson Armstrong Clarina Foster	John Wilson Armstrong Clarinda Foster 💍 1873/5677	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	32 36	Tanganui	16 years 8 years	at the Residence of Mrs Foster, Tanganui	73/292		10 June 1873	Rev. Basel Taylor
52	16 June 1873	William Brewer Eliza Helen Durie	William Brewer Eliza Helen Durie 💍 1873/10042	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Wanganui Manganui	6 years 21 years	Christchurch	73/1781			Rev. Richard Taylor
53	16 June 1873	William George Watt Henriella Caroline Durie	William George Watt Henrietta Caroline Durie 💍 1873/10045	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	22 19	Wanganui Wanganui	19 years 19 years	Square Choral Church	73/1782	J.B. Durie, Father	16 June 1873	Rev. Richard Taylor
54	23 June 1873	Alfred Bailey Amelia Old	Alfred Bailey Amelia Old 💍 1873/10036	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 17	No 2 Line Wanganui No 2 Line Wanganui	5 years 15 years	Malarawa Church	73/1779		23 June 1873	Rev. B. Taylor
55	23 June 1873	William Guynne Catherine Witson	William Guynne Catherine Wilson 💍 1873/10048	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	29 21	Wanganui Wanganui	1 year 1 year	Catholic Church Wanganui	73/1783		25 June 1873	Rev. Father Tresallet
56	25 June 1873	James Methven Emily Bauk	James Bowden Emily Coop 💍 1873/4724	Bachelor Widow	Clerk in Holy orders	31 28	Otaki Wanganui	5 years 14 years	the House of Reed & B. Neville	73/1777		25 June 1873	Rev. F.B. Neville
57	30 June 1873	Stewart Mauson Hori Te Ao Turoa	Stewart Manson Hohi te Ao Turoa 💍 1873/4736	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	36 32	Wanganui Wanganui	8 years 32 years	at the Church, Putiki	73/2150		30 June 1873	Rev. B. Taylor
58	30 June 1873	Ewen Alexander Campbell Helen Barbara Macdonald	Ewen Alexander Campbell Helen Barbara Macdonald 💍 1873/10009	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 23	Wanganui	30 years 7 years	at the Residence of Mrs Macdonald	73/1769		30 June 1873	Rev. John Elmslie

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).