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 441

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 March 1875 Registrar William Sydney Munday

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

163

13 January 1875

William Burrows
Elizabeth Lea

William Burrows
Elizabeth Lee
💍 1875/521

Widower
Widow

Labourer

64
54

Westport
Westport

18 months
18 months

United Methodist Free Church, Westport

75/543

13 January 1875

Rev. Robert Taylor

No	163
Date of Notice	13 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Burrows	Elizabeth Lea
BDM Match (96%)	William Burrows	Elizabeth Lee
	💍 1875/521
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	64	54
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	18 months	18 months
Marriage Place	United Methodist Free Church, Westport
Folio	75/543
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robert Taylor

164

8 February 1875

Joachim Frank
Mary Eliza Minehan

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Widow

Blacksmith

39
34

Westport

4 years
5 weeks

Roman Catholic Church, Charleston

75/5404

8 February 1875

Rev. Thomas Walsh

No	164
Date of Notice	8 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joachim Frank	Mary Eliza Minehan
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	39	34
Dwelling Place	Westport
Length of Residence	4 years	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Charleston
Folio	75/5404
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Walsh

165

15 March 1875

George Green
Catherine Cregan

George Green
Catherine Cregan
💍 1875/358

Bachelor
Widow

Miner

44
38

Westport
Westport

4 months
4 months

Registrar's Office, Westport

75/397

15 March 1875

W.S. Munday Registrar

No	165
Date of Notice	15 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Green	Catherine Cregan
	💍 1875/358
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Miner
Age	44	38
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Westport
Folio	75/397
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1875
Officiating Minister	W.S. Munday Registrar

166

29 March 1875

John Somers
Annie Lizetta Groves

John Stephen Somers
Annie Lesetti Groves
💍 1875/454

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

20
21

Westport
Westport

5 months
4 months

Roman Catholic Church, Westport

75/497

No person having authority to give consent resident in New Zealand

29 March 1875

Rev. Thomas Walsh

No	166
Date of Notice	29 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Somers	Annie Lizetta Groves
BDM Match (71%)	John Stephen Somers	Annie Lesetti Groves
	💍 1875/454
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	5 months	4 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Westport
Folio	75/497
Consent	No person having authority to give consent resident in New Zealand
Date of Certificate	29 March 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Walsh

167

31 March 1875

Henry Thomas Keely
Mary McCallum

Henry Thomas Theely
Mary McCallum
💍 1875/623

Bachelor
Spinster

Lineman

24
20

Westport
Westport

7 days
7 days

St. John's Church, Westport

75/700

Robert McCallum Father of minor

31 March 1875

Rev. George Henry Johnstone

No	167
Date of Notice	31 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Thomas Keely	Mary McCallum
BDM Match (95%)	Henry Thomas Theely	Mary McCallum
	💍 1875/623
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lineman
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Westport
Folio	75/700
Consent	Robert McCallum Father of minor
Date of Certificate	31 March 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. George Henry Johnstone

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 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).