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 719

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 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
66	2 October 1876	Donald McKay Mary Ann Robertson	Donald McKay Mary Ann Robertson 💍 1876/2639 John Marsack Hoyle Mary Ann Robertson 💍 1876/144	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 23	Timaru Timaru	2 years 6 days	Residence of George Bruce, Timaru	76/2462		2 October 1876	Wm Gillies
67	3 October 1876	Matthew Poole Sarah Double	Mathew Poole Barber Sarah Double 💍 1876/2847	Widower Widow	Carpenter	49 52	Timaru Timaru	3 months 11 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	76/2696		3 October 1876	G. S. Ward, Pres.
68	5 October 1876	Charles Belderbeck Ada Ethel Scott	Charles B Mead Branson Ada Ethel Scott 💍 1876/2623	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	28 21	Timaru Timaru	1 month 3 days	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	76/2463		5 October 1876	Wm Oliver, New
69	17 October 1876	John Reed Mary Ann Jones	John Reed Mary Jones 💍 1876/2620	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman Servant	25 19	Timaru Timaru	2 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/2466	Declaration made that no person whose consent is by law required	17 October 1876	Jean A. Goutenoire, Representative of medicine
70	18 October 1876	William Henry Seaward Elizabeth Esther Dart	William Henry Seaward Elizabeth Esther Dart 💍 1876/2640	Bachelor Spinster	Gardiner	29 25	Timaru Timaru	12 months 1 month	Residence of Henry Hollow, Timaru	76/2463		18 October 1876	Wm Gillies
71	31 October 1876	Robert Macdonald Janet Smeral White	Robert Macdonald Waite Janie Emerald White 💍 1876/2619	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Manager	29 19	Timaru Timaru	3 days 3 years	St Mary's Church, Timaru	76/2765	Sarah Haslett, mother, no person whose consent is by law required	31 October 1876	Henry W. Harper, CofE
72	31 October 1876	William Hugh Edith Fawcett		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 19	Timaru Timaru	3 days 13 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Timaru	76/2448	Mother	31 October 1876	Registrar of Marriages, Timaru
73	8 November 1876	David Gower Elizabeth Ellen Benskin	David Owers Elizabeth Ellen Binskin 💍 1876/2624	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 19	Timaru Timaru	3 years 2 years	Residence of Mr Benskin, Sandie Town	76/2440	Father	8 November 1876	Wm B. Oliver
74	8 November 1876	James Thomson Margaret Lebron	James Thomson Margaret Gibson 💍 1876/2618	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 19	Timaru Timaru	3 years 17 years	Residence of Mr Lebron, Salt Street	76/2464	Mother	8 November 1876	Wm Gillies
75	8 November 1876	William Hall Elizabeth Burns	William Exell Elizabeth Burns 💍 1876/2848	Widower Widow	Merchant	38 38	Timaru Timaru	3 years 6 years	H. Wallace, Maori Hill	76/2894		8 November 1876	Chas. E. Ward, [illegible]

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).