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 715

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 September 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
44	1 July 1876	James Daley Rose Corrig	James Daley Rose Cordy 💍 1876/2867	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 21	Timaru Timaru	8 days 3 months	Roman Catholic Church	76/2966		1 July 1876	Jean Antoine Gouterous, R.P.
45	12 July 1876	Michael Mullen Mary Sullivan	Michael Mullins Mary Sullivan 💍 1876/1920	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	21 25	Timaru Timaru	3 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church	76/2038		12 July 1876	Jean Antoine Gouterous, R.P.
46	18 July 1876	Edward Roberts Christina Wilson	Edward Roberts Christina McPhail 💍 1876/2141	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 22	Timaru Timaru	6 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church	76/2233		18 July 1876	William Gillies, Pres
47	19 July 1876	Jonathan Bracefield Jane Biglow	Jonathan Bracefield Jane Uglow 💍 1876/1926	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	20 18	Timaru Timaru	1 year 1 year	Residence of Mrs Lock, Woodlakes	76/2043	Jane Lock, mother	19 July 1876	Charles Henry Ward, Prim
48	19 July 1876	William Wilson Margaret Thompson	William Wilson Margaret Thompson 💍 1876/1925 William Robertson Margaret Jane Thompson 💍 1876/1553	Bachelor Spinster	Drayman	25 22	Timaru Timaru	9 years 1 month	Residence of William Wilson	76/2042		19 July 1876	Charles Henry Ward, Prim
49	28 July 1876	John Gillespie Margaret Cordy	John Gillespie Margaret Cody 💍 1876/2142	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 28	Timaru Timaru	5 years 2 years	Residence of William Gillespie	76/2234		28 July 1876	William Gillies, Pres
50	29 July 1876	John McRobbie [illegible] Wilson		Bachelor [illegible]	Laborer	35 37	Timaru Timaru	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages	76/2033		29 July 1876	William M. Beswick, Reg
51	5 August 1876	John Grant Sarah Ann Smith	John Grant Sarah Ann Smith 💍 1876/1918 Robert Wallace Sarah Ann Smith 💍 1876/2007	Bachelor Spinster	Farming Contractor	21 18	Upper Makikihi Upper Makikihi	7 years 3 weeks	St Marys Church	76/2036	Charles George Tripp, Guardian	5 August 1876	Henry Wm Harper, CofE
52	7 August 1876	Augustus William Wright Amy Jane Perry	Augustus William Wright Amy Jane Perry 💍 1876/1917	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	31 22	Timaru Timaru	3 days 6 years	St Marys Church	76/2035		7 August 1876	Henry Wm Harper, CofE

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).