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 417

District of Waimea South Quarter ending 31 March 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
27	2 January 1873	William Henry Phillips Mary Ellen Chattock	William Henry Phillips Mary Ellen Chattock 💍 1873/6310	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 17	Tadmore Wakefield	10 years 6 years	St John's Church	M 73/507	Richard Chattock, Father	16 January 1873	Rev. C. G. Mules
28	27 January 1873	Richard Langman Mary Rose	Richard Langman Mary Rose 💍 1873/5794	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 21	Waimea South Waimea South	4 years 5 years	Wesleyan Chapel	M 73/330		27 January 1873	Rev. William Camell
29	27 January 1873	Andrew Gardener Keziah Hughes	Andrew Gardner Keziah Hughes 💍 1873/5467	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 18	Fox-hill Fox-hill	3 years 5 years	Residence of George Gardener	73/228	Nicholas Samson, Gaurdian	27 January 1873	Rev. William F. Watkin
30	3 February 1873	Thomas Henry Foy Alice Wormsett	Thomas Henry Foy Alice Wimsett 💍 1873/5536	Widower Spinster	Butcher	33 21	Waimea South Waimea South	3 days 3 days	Residence of Thomas Foy	73/245		3 February 1873	William J. Watkin
31	19 February 1873	Peter Gorrie Sucy Bird	Peter Gorrie Lucy Bird 💍 1873/6313	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 19	City of Nelson Waimea South	26 years 1 year	St John's Church, City of Nelson	M 73/5100	Joshua Bird, Father	15 March 1873	Rev. John Spear
32	24 February 1873	John Feary Sarah Caldwell Gibbs	John Feary Sarah Caldwell Gibbs 💍 1873/6316	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	full age Minor	Wakefield Wakefield	22 years 12 years	St John's Church	M 73/509	John Gibbs, Father	10 March 1873	Rev. John Spear
33	7 March 1873	Thomas Walter Yarrell Sarah Ann Verry	Thomas Walter Yarrall Sarah Ann Verry 💍 1873/9805	Bachelor Spinster	Gunsmith	22 19	City of Nelson Wakefield	6 years 9 years	St John's Church, City of Nelson	73/1699	Rhoda Ann Verry, Mother	22 March 1873	Rev. John Spear

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).