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 801

District of Port Chalmers Quarter ending 30 September 1873 Registrar John Robert Johnson

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

20 July 1873

Henry Turner
Anazoad Donovan

Henry Turner
Margaret Donovan
💍 1875/3112

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic Servant

23
23

George Street
George Street

3 months
4 months

at the Presbyterian Manse

73/191

1 July 1873

Rev. Wm. Johnstone O.S.

No	1
Date of Notice	20 July 1873
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Turner	Anazoad Donovan
BDM Match (78%)	Henry Turner	Margaret Donovan
	💍 1875/3112
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic Servant
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	George Street	George Street
Length of Residence	3 months	4 months
Marriage Place	at the Presbyterian Manse
Folio	73/191
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1873
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. Johnstone O.S.

10 July 1873

William Henry Southgate
Jane Barron

William Henry Southgate
Jane Barrow
💍 1875/2049

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Domestic Servant

22
21

George Street
George Street

3 months
2 months

at the Holy Trinity Church

73/204

10 July 1873

Rev. W. N. Seerem, Coff

No	21
Date of Notice	10 July 1873
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Southgate	Jane Barron
BDM Match (95%)	William Henry Southgate	Jane Barrow
	💍 1875/2049
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Domestic Servant
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	George Street	George Street
Length of Residence	3 months	2 months
Marriage Place	at the Holy Trinity Church
Folio	73/204
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1873
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. N. Seerem, Coff

13 July 1873

Michael Sullivan
Elizabeth Miller

Michael Sullivan
Elizabeth Miller
💍 1875/2051

Bachelor
Widow

Storekeeper

38
37

Princes Street, Dunedin
Peninsula, Port Chalmers

4 years
4 days

at the Registrar Office

73/256

13 July 1873

Registrar, Port Chalmers, Dunedin

No	22
Date of Notice	13 July 1873
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Sullivan	Elizabeth Miller
	💍 1875/2051
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	38	37
Dwelling Place	Princes Street, Dunedin	Peninsula, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	4 years	4 days
Marriage Place	at the Registrar Office
Folio	73/256
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1873
Officiating Minister	Registrar, Port Chalmers, Dunedin

2 August 1873

John William Harrison
Emily Olive Hawkins

John William Harrison
Emily Olive Hawkins
💍 1875/2050

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

23
16

George Street, Port Chalmers
Sawyers Bay, Port Chalmers

11 months
12 months

at the Holy Trinity Church

73/255

Consent given by John Hawkins, see R.G. 73/21

2 August 1873

Rev. W. N. Seerem, Coff

No	23
Date of Notice	2 August 1873
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Harrison	Emily Olive Hawkins
	💍 1875/2050
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	23	16
Dwelling Place	George Street, Port Chalmers	Sawyers Bay, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	11 months	12 months
Marriage Place	at the Holy Trinity Church
Folio	73/255
Consent	Consent given by John Hawkins, see R.G. 73/21
Date of Certificate	2 August 1873
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. N. Seerem, Coff

28 September 1873

James Maybe
Mary Jane Mayne

James Moyle
Mary Jane Mayne
💍 1875/2764

Bachelor
Spinster

Drayman

27
19

Sawyers Bay
Sawyers Bay

2 years
3 years

at the Holy Trinity Church

73/355

James Mayne, the Father of the Bride

28 September 1873

Rev. W. T. Seerem, Coff

No	24
Date of Notice	28 September 1873
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Maybe	Mary Jane Mayne
BDM Match (91%)	James Moyle	Mary Jane Mayne
	💍 1875/2764
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drayman
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Sawyers Bay	Sawyers Bay
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	at the Holy Trinity Church
Folio	73/355
Consent	James Mayne, the Father of the Bride
Date of Certificate	28 September 1873
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. T. Seerem, Coff

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 1903. 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).