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 651

District of Timaru 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
473	4 October 1875	William Dugdale Jane Fearman	William Drydale Jane Fenner 💍 1875/2654 William Bettis Jane Morgan 💍 1875/1942	Bachelor Spinster	Professor of music	34 20	Timaru Timaru	9 months 5 months	St Mary's Church, Timaru	75/2857	Declaration made, no person in Colony to give consent	16 October 1875	Rev. Frederick George Brittan
474	11 October 1875	Herbert Armitage Fanny Roberts	Herbert Armitage Fanny Roberts 💍 1875/2658	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	27 18	Timaru Peeress Town	14 months 8 months	Residence of Mr Wall, Peeress Town	75/2853	Declaration made, no person in Colony to give consent	18 October 1875	Rev. Josiah Ward
475	16 October 1875	Francis Mackenzie Jessie Thompson	Francis MacKenzie Jessie Thompson 💍 1875/2657	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	34 30	Timaru Peeress Town	12 months 4 months	Residence of Mrs Hoace, Peeress Town	75/2854		16 October 1875	Rev. Josiah Ward
476	22 October 1875	William Wilson Susannah Maxwell	William Wilson Susannah Maxwell 💍 1875/2665	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 20	Timaru Timaru	3 days 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	75/2861	Adam Mahon, Uncle of Susannah Maxwell	22 October 1875	Rev. William Gillies
478	1 November 1875	Robert Baillie Arcus Mary Ann Gosney	Robert Baillie Arcus Mary Ann Gosney 💍 1875/2659	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	20 21	Sandietown Timaru	6 months 18 months	Residence of Mr Guilford, Sandietown	75/2856	Declaration made, no person in Colony to give consent	1 November 1875	Rev. Josiah Ward
479	3 November 1875	George Felmer Mary Josephine Fiddler		Bachelor Spinster	Builder	31 19	Timaru Timaru	2 years 1 year	Residence of Mr B. Gibson, Timaru	75/2857	Declaration made, no person in Colony to give consent	3 November 1875	Rev. Josiah Ward
480	3 November 1875	John Hamilton Catherine McIntyre	John Hamilton Catherine McIntyre 💍 1875/2655	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 25	The Point The Point	5 days 1 month	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	75/2852		3 November 1875	Rev. Jean Antoine Goulvenoire
481	16 November 1875	John Chapman Emily Brook Surridge	John Chapman Emily Croat Suridge 💍 1875/2662	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	35 25	Timaru Timaru	2 years 6 months	Residence of Mr Cotton, Timaru	75/2858		16 November 1875	Rev. Josiah Ward
483	4 December 1875	James Hoff Johanna Fromahan	James Poff Johanna Brosnahan 💍 1875/2656	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 22	Timaru Levels Plains	7 days 5 days	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	75/2853		4 December 1875	Rev. Jean Antoine Goulvenoire
484	11 December 1875	Gustaf Frederick Federman Mary Ann Ferguson	Gustof Frederick Sedermann Mary Ann Ferguson 💍 1875/2664	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	39 35	Near Timaru Near Timaru	1 year 18 months	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	75/2860		11 December 1875	Rev. William Gillies
485	17 December 1875	William Boss Allan Harriet Cook	William Brosallan Hamet Cook 💍 1875/2663	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 19	Timaru Timaru	2 months 2 months	Residence of Rev. William Gillies	75/2859	Robert Cook, Father of Harriet Cook	17 December 1875	Rev. William Gillies

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).