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 713

District of Timaru Quarter ending 15 June 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
23	6 April 1876	David Bowler Anna Malvina Quirk	David Bowler Anna Malene Buork 💍 1876/3138	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Cook	21 27	Sandietown near Timaru	14 days 18 months	Residence of [illegible]	76/1422		6 April 1876	Rev. Lasisla Ward, [illegible]
24	6 April 1876	James Spence Mary Betsy Lang	James Spence Mary Betsy Lang Parsons 💍 1876/893	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	33 25	Timaru Sandietown	6 months 6 years	Saint Mary's Church at Timaru	76/1990		6 April 1876	Venerable Archdeacon Henry William Harper, CofE
27	20 April 1876	John Call Annie Toff	John Coll Annie Poff 💍 1876/896 John Putt Annie Toole 💍 1876/2490 John Bowler Annie Cook 💍 1876/1513	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	27 23	Timaru Timaru	14 days 7 days	Roman Catholic Chapel at Timaru	76/1993		20 April 1876	Rev. Jean Antoine Gantevoire, RC
28	20 April 1876	James Pearce Mary Silth	James Pearce Mary Jane McMillan 💍 1876/3119	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 27	Timaru Timaru	14 days 7 days	Roman Catholic Chapel at Timaru	76/1994		20 April 1876	Rev. Jean Antoine Gantevoire, RC
29	20 April 1876	Michael Finigan Ellen Molony	Michael Fenigan Ellen Maloney 💍 1876/940	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	31 25	Timaru Timaru	2 months 6 years	Roman Catholic Chapel at Timaru	76/1995		20 April 1876	Rev. Jean Antoine Gantevoire, RC
33	19 May 1876	Henry Packer Martha Lukey	Henry Packer Martha Lukey 💍 1876/930	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Dressmaker	24 20	Timaru Waimate	2 years 1.5 years	Residence of Mrs Sarah Lukey	76/1003	Sarah Lukey (Mother)	19 May 1876	Rev. William J. Oliver, Pres
34	26 May 1876	Edward Oye Emily Josephine Marshall	Edward Dye Emily Josephine Marshall 💍 1876/1333	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	25 21	Timaru Timaru	2 years 6 months	Residence of Edward Oye, Timaru	76/1352		26 May 1876	Rev. William Gillies, Pres
35	26 May 1876	Eugene Sullivan Eliza Hennessy	Eugene Sullivan Eliza Hennessy 💍 1876/948	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 25	Timaru Timaru	4 weeks 9 months	Roman Catholic Chapel	76/1997		26 May 1876	Rev. Jean Antoine Gantevoire, RC

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).