Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 156

District of SHORTLAND Quarter ending 31 December 1875

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
588	26 October 1875	Thomas Black Sarah Ann Truscott	Thomas Black Clara Ann Truscott 💍 1875/2649	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Milliner	27 years 20 years	Thames Thames	6 years 6 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Revd John Crump, Hape, Thames	75/822	Alexander Truscott, Father	26 October 1875	Revd John Crump
589	5 November 1875	John Macdonald Mary Louisa Smith	John McDonald Mary Louisa Smith 💍 1875/2819	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Carter	30 years 24 years	Waiotahi Hauraki Saw Mills	3 years 6 years	In the dwelling house occupied by David Adamson, Karaka, Thames	75/3066		5 November 1875	Revd James Hill
590	11 November 1875	William Newman Louisa Jane Turner	William Herman Louisa Jane Turner 💍 1875/2626	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Seamstress	22 years 20 years	Thames Thames	1 year 7 days	In the dwelling house occupied by James Turner, Pollen St, Thames	75/823	John Turner, Father	11 November 1875	Revd John Crump
591	11 November 1875	Joseph Lowndes Ellen Atchison	Joseph Loundes Eliza Atchison 💍 1875/2502	Widower Spinster	Mariner Housekeeper	42 years 22 years	Thames Thames	7 years 2 months	By the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Shortland District	75/2692		11 November 1875	C. H. Power
592	11 November 1875	William McCullough Elizabeth Perrington	William McCullough Eleanor Jane Parkin Errington 💍 1875/2617	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist Journalist	32 years 22 years	Thames Auckland	6 years 7 years	All Saints Church, Dedwood			11 November 1875	C. H. Power
593	15 November 1875	George Fisher Mary Antelison	George John Fisher Mary Hutchison 💍 1875/2830	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Domestic	32 years 21 years	Ohinemuri Ohinemuri	6 years 7 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Wm. Redworth, Matangurua, Waitangurua	75/3066		15 November 1875	Revd V. Lush
594	17 November 1875	Richard Grenfell Sarah Rogers	Richard Grenfell Sarah Rogers 💍 1875/2899	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	29 years 24 years	Thames Thames	7 months 2 years	St Georges Church, Ohinell	75/2980		17 November 1875	Revd V. Lush
595	19 November 1875	James Jeffrey Margaret Farmer	James Jeffery Margaret Garner 💍 1875/2900 James Doherty Margaret Doocey 💍 1875/60 James Kehoe Margaret Cudiby 💍 1875/2016	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Milliner	40 years 26 years	Thames Thames	6 years 2 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Edward Bottommore, Kararawai	75/2981		19 November 1875	Revd V. Lush

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

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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).