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 479

District of Marlborough Quarter ending 31 December 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
20	3 October 1873	William James Robinson Emily Reeves	William James Robinson Emily Reeves 💍 1873/9865	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 16	Spring Creek Spring Creek	14 years 16 years	House of Mr Sheriff	73/1720	Mary Ann Reeves, Mother	3 October 1873	Rev. William Sherriff
21	14 October 1873	Thomas Boundy Mary Jane Seymour	Thomas Boundy Mary Jane Seymour 💍 1873/9841	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	23 25	Tuamarina Tuamarina	11 months 4 days	House of Mr John Botham	73/1712		14 October 1873	Rev. George F. Harper
22	21 October 1873	Charles Ohlsen Elisabeth Harmer	Charles Ohlson Betsy Farmer 💍 1873/10894	Bachelor Widow	Carter	25 25	Big Bush Big Bush	8 years 10 years	House of Charles Ohlsen Big Bush	73/2077		21 October 1873	Ben A. O. Butt
23	28 October 1873	Frederick Owens Elizabeth Smith Carroll	Frederick Fiven Elizabeth Smith Carroll 💍 1873/9868	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	23 20	Blenheim Blenheim	18 months 14 years	Church of England	73/1721	John Baffe & Caleb Davies, Guardians	28 October 1873	Rev A. C. Butt
24	29 October 1873	John Harris Elizabeth Ann Williams	John Harris Elizabeth Ann Williams 💍 1873/9844	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	22 21	Tuamarina Tuamarina	12 months 4 days	House of Mr Botham	73/1713		29 October 1873	Rev. G. F. Harper
25	29 October 1873	Nicholas Stevens Mary Harris	Nicolas Stevens Mary Harris 💍 1873/9847	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 21	Tuamarina Tuamarina	1 year 4 days	House of Mr Botham	73/1714		29 October 1873	Rev. G. F. Harper
26	31 October 1873	Frederick Stevens Elizabeth Carroll	Frederick Fiven Elizabeth Smith Carroll 💍 1873/9868	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	23 20	Blenheim Blenheim	18 months 14 years	House of N. Holmes	73/1721	John Baffe & Caleb Davies, Guardians	31 October 1873	Rev. M. Sherriff

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).