Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 705

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1876

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
1	11 January 1876	George Knowles Charlotte Taylor	George Knowles Charlotte Taylor 💍 1876/448	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Cook	25 20	Beverly, near Timaru Timaru	3 Months 14 days	Residence of Thomas Stapleton, Timaru	76/505	no person required to give consent	11 January 1876	Rev William Oliver, Pres
2	12 January 1876	Arthur Shirley Bridget Anne Jones	Arthur Shirley Bridget Jones 💍 1876/651	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housemaid	21 24	Timaru Timaru	6 weeks 1 month	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/513		12 January 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Gouttenoire, R.C.
3	12 January 1876	Joseph Wallace Margaret Galbraith	Joseph Wallace Margaret Galbraith 💍 1876/3178	Widower Spinster	Farmer	38 28	Waitohi near Timaru	a year 6 days	Residence of Mr. Bary, junr, Waimate & Gully	76/184		12 January 1876	Rev William Gillies, Pres
4	14 January 1876	Charles Murphy Elizabeth Semple	Charles Murphy Elizabeth Dempsay 💍 1876/652	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Servant	27 21	Timaru Timaru	4 days 4 days	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/514		14 January 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Gouttenoire, R.C.
5	14 January 1876	Edwin Samuel Lines Susannah Mary Craddock	Edwin Samuel Simes Susannah Mary Craddock 💍 1876/107	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 21	Timaru Timaru	4 days 4 days	St Mary Church, Timaru	76/144		14 January 1876	Ven Archdeacon, Henry William Harper, CofE
6	15 January 1876	Thomas Powell Amelia Louisa Barnes	Thomas Powel Minna Amelia Louisa Barnes 💍 1876/3240	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	37 23	Washdyke Washdyke	4 days 7 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Timaru	76/572		15 January 1876	Registrar of Marriage, Timaru
8	18 January 1876	James Mair Lavinia Mundy	James Marr Lavinia Mundy 💍 1876/654	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	34 23	Timaru Timaru	10 years 2 years	Residence of W. Mundy, Timaru	76/516		18 January 1876	Rev William Gillies, Pres
11	23 February 1876	August Albert Langbein Maria Augusta Ziesler	August Albert Langbein Maria Augusta Jesse 💍 1876/109	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 23	Timaru Timaru	2 months 1 week	St Mary Church, Timaru	76/146		23 February 1876	Ven Archdeacon, Henry William Harper, CofE
14	8 March 1876	William Turnbull Jane Wade	William Turnbull Jane Wade 💍 1876/634	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	30 28	Timaru Timaru	14 days 4 months	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Timaru	76/570		8 March 1876	Rev Josiah Ward, Prim

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).