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 651

District of Timaru Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
371	10 January 1874	John Johnston Caroline Walker	John Johnstone Caroline Walker 💍 1874/7009	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	29 26	Otipua Creek Otipua Creek	3 years 8 years	Residence of Mr Walker Otipua Creek	74/381		18 February 1874	William R Campbell
372	21 January 1874	Jncliffe Baxter Martha Emma Janchel	Sutcliffe Baxter Martha Emma Sarchet 💍 1874/6991	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	44 39	Timaru Timaru	3 days 2 years	Residence of Mr Blackmore Timaru	74/375		21 January 1874	Rev William Bell
373	26 January 1874	Robert Hughes Sarah Pizzey	Robert Hughes Sarah Pizzey 💍 1874/13939	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 17	Irishtown Irishtown	9 years 6 years	St Mary Church Timaru	3763	Robert Pizzey father	17 February 1874	Rev George Foster
374	3 February 1874	Robert Vicker Susan Harris	Robert Thew Susan Harris 💍 1874/6994	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	31 18	Timaru near Timaru	2 days 15 years	Wesleyan Chapel Timaru	74/376	Charlotte Harris mother	18 February 1874	Rev Frederick Brownbury
375	10 February 1874	William Henry Cooper Moore Elizabeth Langton	William Henry Cooper Moore Elizabeth Sanckson 💍 1874/7522	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	The Point The Point	15 months 4 months	Residence of Mr Yates The Point	74/360		10 February 1874	Rev James Preston
376	13 February 1874	John Griffiths Emma Hodder	John Griffiths Emma Hodder 💍 1874/7003	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	28 20	Timaru Timaru	2 months 7 days	Residence of Mr Gibson Timaru	74/379		13 February 1874	Rev Josiah Ward
377	20 February 1874	Henry Cotton Cocks Mary Hargraves	Henry Cotton Cocks Mary Hargraves 💍 1874/7006	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman Servant	29 23	Timaru near Timaru	2 months 3 days	St Mary Church Timaru	Same as 380		20 February 1874	Rev George Foster
378	24 February 1874	Ernest Tomlinson Alice Barrett	Ernest Tomlinson Alice Barrett 💍 1874/7012	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	37 21	Saltwater Creek Timaru	7 years One year	Office of Registrar of Marriages Timaru	74/382		24 February 1874	Registrar of Marriages Timaru
379	24 February 1874	Henry Cotton Cocks Mary Hargraves	Henry Cotton Cocks Mary Hargraves 💍 1874/7006	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman Servant	29 23	Timaru Greattown	2 months 3 days	Residence of Mr Griffiths Timaru	74/380		24 February 1874	Rev Josiah Ward

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).