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 667

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 September 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
346	15 July 1873	John Hampton Jane Irwin	John Hampton Jane Irwin 💍 1873/4805	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 22	near Timaru Timaru	5 years 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	737/1282		18 July 1873	Rev George Barkley
347	15 July 1873	Robert Joseph Allen Sarah Woodford	Robert Joseph Allen Sarah Woodford 💍 1873/11398	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 20	Temuka Timaru	5 months 2 years	St Henry Church, Geraldine	73/1225		15 July 1873	Rev George Foster
348	16 July 1873	John Hampton Jane Irwin	John Hampton Jane Irwin 💍 1873/4805	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 22	near Timaru Timaru	5 years 4 years	Residence of W Glasson	73/2182		16 July 1873	Rev George Barkley
349	21 July 1873	Charles Edward Dudley Edith Ursula Beswick	Charles Edward Dudley Edith Ursula Beswick 💍 1873/11404	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	26 21	Kaiapoi Timaru	14 years 1 week	St Henry Church, Kaiapoi	73/1225		21 July 1873	Rev George Foster
351	4 August 1873	Edward Chiles Eliza Ann Cockroft	Edward Chiles Eliza Ann Cockcroft 💍 1873/9733	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 19	Geraldine Timaru	7 years 6 years	Residence of Joseph Cockroft	73/1674	Joseph Cockroft, Father	4 August 1873	Rev William Lee
352	4 August 1873	Isaac Greenaway Mary Ann Younghusband	Isaac Greenaway Mary Ann Younghusband 💍 1873/9760	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 29	Orare Timaru	4 years 4 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Geraldine	73/1683		7th Aug	Registrar of Marriages
353	5 August 1873	James Campbell Rebecca Gibson	James Campbell Rebecca Gibson 💍 1873/11410	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 17	Timaru near Timaru	11 years 14 years	St Mary Church, Timaru	73/2256		5 August 1873	Rev George Foster
354	8 Sept 1873	Frederick Lawrence Elizabeth Cameron	Frederick Lawrence Wallace Elizabeth Cameron 💍 1873/9736	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	21 17	near Timaru Timaru	8 years 7 years	Residence of F.L. Wallace	73/1675	Mary Ann Prentice, mother	8 Sept 1873	Rev William Lee
358	19 Sept 1873	Henry Holmes Elizabeth Leather	Henry Holmes Elizabeth Leecher 💍 1873/11413	Widower Spinster	Farmer	39 35	near Timaru Timaru	7 years 2 yrs	Residence of Henry Holmes	73/2260		19 Sept 1873	Rev George Foster

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).