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 215

District of Turanga Quarter ending 31 March 1874 Registrar J. H. Stubbs

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

22 January 1874

William Francis Stephenson
Mary Ann Elliott Blank

William Francis Stephenson
Mary Ann Elliott Blank
💍 1874/6160

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

31
25

Toroa, Poverty Bay
Puketapu, Poverty Bay

2 years
6 months

Registar's Office, Gisborne

74/95

9 February 1874

J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

No	78
Date of Notice	22 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Stephenson	Mary Ann Elliott Blank
	💍 1874/6160
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	31	25
Dwelling Place	Toroa, Poverty Bay	Puketapu, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	2 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Registar's Office, Gisborne
Folio	74/95
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1874
Officiating Minister	J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

31 January 1874

John Kilkolly
Amelia Anderson

John Kilkolly
Amelia Anderson
💍 1874/6172

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

32
19

Gisborne
Gisborne

5 years
3 months

At the house of Mr Robertson, Makauri

74/99

31 January 1874

Revd. W.H. Root

No	79
Date of Notice	31 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Kilkolly	Amelia Anderson
	💍 1874/6172
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	5 years	3 months
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Robertson, Makauri
Folio	74/99
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Revd. W.H. Root

24 February 1874

Frederick Keating
Mata Akehena

Frederick Keating
Mata Akeneha
💍 1874/6163

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer

43
30

Ormond
Ormond

4 years
30 years

Registrar's Office, Gisborne

74/96

24 February 1874

J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

No	80
Date of Notice	24 February 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Keating	Mata Akehena
BDM Match (92%)	Frederick Keating	Mata Akeneha
	💍 1874/6163
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer
Age	43	30
Dwelling Place	Ormond	Ormond
Length of Residence	4 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Gisborne
Folio	74/96
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1874
Officiating Minister	J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

26 February 1874

Francis Stanhope
Margaret Lucinda Hollywood

Francis Stanhope
Margaret Lucinda Hollywood
💍 1874/6166

Bachelor
Spinster

Sergt. A.C.

30
20

Gisborne
Gisborne

6 months
2 months

Registrar's Office, Gisborne

74/97

Eleanor Sproule, mother of M.L. Hollywood

26 February 1874

J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

No	81
Date of Notice	26 February 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Stanhope	Margaret Lucinda Hollywood
	💍 1874/6166
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sergt. A.C.
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	6 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Gisborne
Folio	74/97
Consent	Eleanor Sproule, mother of M.L. Hollywood
Date of Certificate	26 February 1874
Officiating Minister	J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

4 March 1874

John Ferguson
Ethel Ramsey

[Marriage performed, no return]

Bachelor
Spinster

Runholder

34
26

Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay

6 years
6 months

At the residence of H. Harris Esq. P. Bay

74/98

4 March 1874

Revd. W.H. Root

No	82
Date of Notice	4 March 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ferguson	Ethel Ramsey
	💍 [Marriage performed, no return]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Runholder
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Poverty Bay	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	6 years	6 months
Marriage Place	At the residence of H. Harris Esq. P. Bay
Folio	74/98
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1874
Officiating Minister	Revd. W.H. Root

19 March 1874

John Moran Day
Dinah West

John Moran Day
Dinah West
💍 1874/6169

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

34
19

Poverty Bay
Poverty Bay

6 weeks
6 weeks

Registrar's Office, Gisborne

74/98

Frederick West, father of Dinah West

21 March 1874

J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

No	83
Date of Notice	19 March 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Moran Day	Dinah West
	💍 1874/6169
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	34	19
Dwelling Place	Poverty Bay	Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Gisborne
Folio	74/98
Consent	Frederick West, father of Dinah West
Date of Certificate	21 March 1874
Officiating Minister	J.H. Stubbs, Registrar

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).