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 567

District of Rangiora 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
153	29 January 1873	William Miles Agnes Blair	William Miles Agnes Blair 💍 1873/4730	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Not any	25 19	Rangiora Rangiora	13 years 6 months	Office of Registrar	John Blair, father	29 January 1873	A.H. Cunningham, Registrar
154	1 February 1873	Edward Murfitt Ellen Miles	Edward Murfitt Ellen Miles 💍 1873/5623	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Not any	21 18	Woodend, Rangiora Rangiora	14 years 10 years	Parish Church, Rangiora	James Miles, father	14 February 1873	Rev. B.W. Dudley
155	1 March 1873	William Mulholland Jane Gow	William Mulholland Jane Gow 💍 1873/5363	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Not any	23 27	Christchurch Rangiora	3 1/2 years 1 year	Parish Church, Rangiora		14 March 1873	Rev. J. McGregor
156	21 April 1873	John Buss Sarah Baker	John Bugg Sarah Baker 💍 1873/9340	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Not any	29 25	Rangiora Kaiapoi	3 days 14 years	Parish Church, Rangiora		8 May 1873	Rev. B.W. Dudley
157	29 April 1873	Edward Halford Berrow Sarah Felicia Bray	Edward Hatfield Brown Sarah Fiducia Bray 💍 1873/6814	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Not any	27 28	Waterton, Rangiora Christchurch	12 years 3 years	St Luke's Church, Christchurch		11 May 1873	Rev. E. Leyer - not taken up
158	1 May 1873	William Graham Georgina Hale	William Graham Georgina Hall 💍 1873/10654 William Graham Mary Dalzell 💍 1873/8023	Bachelor Widow	Smith etc Not any	32 29	Rangiora Rangiora	6 weeks 14 years	Office of Registrar		1 May 1873	A.H. Cunningham, Registrar
159	14 June 1873	William Murphy Anne M. Madden	William Murphy Ann McMahon 💍 1873/9334	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant Servant	30 25	Rangiora Rangiora	14 years 2 1/2 years	Catholic Chapel, Rangiora		8 July 1873	Rev. F. Cherrier
160	6 July 1873	John Shirlin Sarah Ann Edlin	John Sharplin Sarah Ann Edlin 💍 1873/10657	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Not any	22 20	Rangiora Rangiora	15 years 5 years	Office of Registrar, Rangiora	Henry Edlin, Father	9 July 1873	A.H. Cunningham
161	19 July 1873	George Joseph Martin Catherine McClure	George Joseph Martin Catherine McClure 💍 1873/9343	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	26 26	Racecourse, Rangiora Rangiora	8 years 5 years	Parish Church, Rangiora		19 July 1873	Rev. B.W. Dudley
162	6 September 1873	John O'Connor Kate Daley	John O'Connor Kate Daley 💍 1873/9337	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 27	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 6 months	Catholic Chapel, Rangiora		6 September 1873	Rev. F. Cherrier
163	11 October 1873	Thomas Trumplton Harriet Richardson	Thomas Frampton Harriet Richardson 💍 1873/7864	Widower Widow	Labourer Dressmaker	40 43	Rangiora Rangiora	1/2 year 1 year	House of Mrs Richardson, Rangiora		2 October 1873	Rev. J. McGregor

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).