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 643

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 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
445	5 April 1875	David Boyce Margaret Davidson	David Bryce Margaret Davidson 💍 1875/1562	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Cook	22 23	near Timaru near Timaru	5 days 3 weeks	Residence of James Rogers, Salt Water Creek	75/1612		5 April 1875	Rev George Foster
446	9 April 1875	Robert Sutherland Ellen Wilson	Robert Sutherland Ellen Wilson 💍 1875/981	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 19	Timaru Timaru	3 years 17 years	Presbyterian Church	75/1148	John Wilson, Father	9 April 1875	Rev James Clark
447	10 April 1875	Robert Pearson Maria Walley	Robert Pearson Maria Whalley 💍 1875/1563	Bachelor Widow	Boatman	33 29	Timaru Levels Plains	4 years 3 years	Many Church	75/1635		10 April 1875	Rev George Barclay
448	10 April 1875	John Hickle Marion Louise Lear	John Meikle Marion Louisa Lear 💍 1875/1132	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver	31 22	Timaru Timaru	3 days 1 year	Residence of W. Hammond	75/1156		10 April 1875	Rev James Clark
449	12 April 1875	Alexander Thomson Martha Hammond	Alexander Thomson Martha Hammom Taylor 💍 1875/982	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 20	Washdyke Timaru	3 years 9 months	Presbyterian Church	75/1149	Charlotte Taylor, Mother	12 April 1875	Rev Josiah Ward
450	16 April 1875	John Gash Catherine Blair	John Gash Catherine Blair 💍 1875/976	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Cook	26 19	Timaru Timaru	8 months 1 year	Residence of W. Hick	75/1141	Declaration made, No person in Colony to give Consent	16 April 1875	Rev Josiah Ward
451	23 April 1875	John Logan Mary Jane Hewitt	John Logan Mary Jane Hewish 💍 1875/974	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	21 21	Timaru Timaru	1 year 1 year	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Timaru	75/1142		23 April 1875	Registrar of Marriages
452	24 April 1875	James Small Catherine Connor	James Small Catherine Connor 💍 1875/586	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 21	Timaru Salt Water Creek	3 years 8 months	Catholic Chapel	75/1662		24 April 1875	Rev Jean Baptiste Chataigner
453	13 May 1875	William Colliers Alice Holland	William Collins Alice Holland 💍 1875/975	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 22	Timaru Timaru	2 days 5 months	Residence of Rev G. Foster	75/1143		13 May 1875	Rev George Foster

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).