Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 188

District of Shortland Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
483	28 April 1874	John Huston Catherine Margaret Donnelly	John Lupton Catherine Margaret Donnelly 💍 1874/8245	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic	30 22	Thames Thames	7 days 7 days	Register of Marriages Shortland District	74/814		28 April 1874	[UNCLEAR]
484	4 May 1874	Benjamin Skeen Margaret Jane Strong	Benjamin Skeen Margaret Jane Strong 💍 1874/8344	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 22	Thames Auckland Auckland	6 years 18 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Wm Robert Skeen Wyndham Street Auckland	844		18 May 1874	Rev. Alexander Reid
485	11 May 1874	Stephen Bird Margaret Little	Stephen Bird Margaret Little 💍 1874/8890	Bachelor Widow	Miner Housekeeper	36 35	Thames Thames	3 years 2[UNCLEAR] years	St. George's Church Thames	74/1028		25 May 1874	Rev. V. Bush
486	20 May 1874	John Goonan Jane Lourie	James Goonan Jane Lowrie 💍 1874/7723	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	21 21	Hastings Hastings	2 years 3 years	St. Francis' R. C. Church Thames	74/629		20 May 1874	Rev. J. Mahony
487	20 May 1874	David Watson Pitkothley Isabella Minnie	David Watson Pitkethley Isabella Mennie 💍 1874/9466	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 20	Thames Thames	6 years 20 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Mrs Minnie [UNCLEAR] Kirkwood Street, Thames	74/1225	James Milne [UNCLEAR] as Guardian	20 May 1874	Rev. James Hill
488	20 May 1874	James William Rickit Jane McIhnoyle	James William Rickit Jane McIlmoyle 💍 1874/7729	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 22	Karaka Karaka	5 years 4 years	In the dwelling house occupied by F. Gudah Hape Thames	74/763		21 May 1874	Rev. John Crump
489	21 May 1874	John Burgess West Mary Fanny Peek	John Burgess West Mary Fanny Peak 💍 1874/9388	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Thames Remuera	[UNCLEAR] weeks 2 years	St. Marks' Church Remuera	1199		28 May 1874	Rev. Archd. Britt
490	27 May 1874	Robert Ludlow Mary Ann Lupton	Robert Ludlow Mary Ann Lupston 💍 1874/9463	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 22	Karaka Karaka	4 years 1 year	In the dwelling house occupied by Mr. George Ludlow Karaka, Thames	74/1224		27 May 1874	Rev. James Hill

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

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).