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 641

District of Geraldine Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
143	17 July 1874	Joseph Loach Harriet Tennant	Joseph Loach Harriet Tanant 💍 1874/10951	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 21	Geraldine Geraldine	2 years 3 weeks	The House of Mr James Gaby, Geraldine	74/1732		17 July 1874	Rev James Preston
144	17 July 1874	John William Jones Elizabeth Phillips	John William Jones Elizabeth Philips 💍 1874/10954	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Kakahu Geraldine	8 years 1 week	St Mary's Church, Geraldine	74/1733		17 July 1874	Rev James Preston
145	28 July 1874	James Guilford Kate Lynch	James Guilford Kate Lynch 💍 1874/10957	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	33 18	Geraldine Waiti Bush	7 years 3 weeks	St Mary's Church, Pleasant Valley	1734	Stephen Jaylin, Guardian	10 Aug 1874	Per James Preston
146	17 Aug 1874	Thomas Philip Coull Annie Jasquier Leaf	Thomas Philip Coull Anne Lavinia Croxford 💍 1874/10960	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 21	Geraldine Rangitata	3 years 3 months	St Mary's Church, Geraldine	1735		17 Aug 1874	Per James Preston
147	17 Aug 1874	Samuel Ford Emma Elizabeth Barber	Samuel Ford Emma Elizabeth Barber 💍 1874/10963	Widower Widow	Linendraper	42 45	Geraldine Geraldine	1 year 1 month	St Mary's Church, Geraldine	1736		31 Aug 1874	Per James Preston
148	17 Aug 1874	George Hammond Eva Dean	George Hammond Evangeline Ellen Dean 💍 1874/10966	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	26 17	Waiti Bush Waiti Bush	7 years 1 year	The House of Mr Jos. Dean, Waiti Bush	1737	Joseph Dean, Father	17 Aug 1874	Rev James Preston
149	29 Aug 1874	Edward Churchward Annie Eames	Edward Churchwood Eliza Annie Heim 💍 1874/10969	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 23	Scotsburn Scotsburn	2 years 1 year	St Mary's Church, Geraldine	74/1738		29 Aug 1874	Rev James Preston
150	7 Sep 1874	George Brown Jessie Bethune	George Hepworth Jessie Bethune 💍 1874/10576	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	35 39	Geraldine Geraldine	9 months 2 years	The House of Frederick Bethune, Geraldine	1603		7 Sep 1874	Rev George Barclay
151	7 Sep 1874	Thomas Eaton Susan Kirby	Thomas Eaton Susan Kirby 💍 1874/10972	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	21 18	Geraldine Geraldine	7 years 5 years	St Mary's Church, Geraldine	1739	Michael Kirby, Father	7 Sep 1874

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).