Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 691

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar Mr. Berwick

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	2 January 1877	Joseph Hingett Mary O'Shea	Joseph Kingett Mary O'Shea 💍 1877/534	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	25 23	Timaru Timaru	2 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church	77/445		2 January 1877	Jean A Coutenoir
2	12 January 1877	George Edward Langrish Annie Gordon	George Edward Langrish Annie Gordon 💍 1877/556	Bachelor Widow	Seaman	39 23	Timaru Timaru	4 years 5 years	Residence of Geo. Edward	77/449		12 January 1877	William Gillies
3	15 January 1877	William McBellen Elizabeth Brodie	William McLellan Elizabeth Brodie 💍 1877/533	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	40 36	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	3 years Residence of Elizabeth Brodie		77/444		15 January 1877	George Bounday
4	12 February 1877	Benjamin Tall [illegible]		Bachelor [illegible]	Sailmaker [illegible]	27 [illegible]	Timaru [illegible]	5 months [illegible]	Residence of Sands. Griffin	77/450		12 February 1877	William Gillies
5	12 February 1877	Benjamin Tall Phoebe Tagg Bateman	Benjamin Tall Phoebe Fagg Bateman 💍 1877/562	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker Servant	27 21	Timaru Timaru	5 months 2 months	Timaru	77/450		12 February 1877	William Gillies
6	27 February 1877	Anthony Shads Clara Selina Wright	Anthony Shaab Clara Selina Wright 💍 1877/535	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	27 21	Timaru Timaru	3 months Residence of J.H. Hopp, Timaru		77/446		27 February 1877	Jean A Coutenoir
7	28 February 1877	Daniel James Keage [illegible]		Bachelor [illegible]	Brickmaker [illegible]	22 [illegible]	Timaru [illegible]	18 months [illegible]	Church, Timaru	77/451	Hugh Keage (Father)	28 February 1877	William Gillies
8	6 March 1877	Charles Simpson Sarah Toneycliff	Charles Johnson Sarah Lewis 💍 1877/28	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer -	21 19	Timaru Timaru	15 months Residence of Hugh Toneycliff		77/452	Hugh Toneycliff (Father)	5 March 1877	William Gillies
9	8 March 1877	Joseph Renton Bridget Kelly	Joseph Newton Bridget Kelly 💍 1877/729	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher -	22 19	Timaru Timaru	8 years Residence of Hugh Toneycliff	Roman Catholic Chapel, Timaru	77/444		8 March 1877	Charles E Ward
10	14 March 1877	Thomas Bladde [illegible]		Bachelor [illegible]	Seaman [illegible]	21 [illegible]	Timaru [illegible]	18 months [illegible]	[illegible]	77/454		14 March 1877	Jean A Coutenoir
11	17 March 1877	Samuel Robinson Catherine Moran	Samuel Robinson Catherine Moran 💍 1877/566	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	21 22	Timaru Timaru	3 days 4 days	Church, Timaru	77/453		17 March 1877	Henry A. Harper
12	20 March 1877	Philip Russell Susan Snow	Philip Russell Susan Stout 💍 1877/565	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	22 22	Otaio Timaru	2 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	77/448		20 March 1877	William Gillies
13	22 March 1877	Samuel Rook Lucy Tower	Samuel Doak Lucy Toner 💍 1877/545	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 22	Timaru Timaru	3 days 2 months	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	77/1063		22 March 1877	Jean A Coutenoir
14	30 March 1877	Archibald McDonald Ellen O'Rourke	Archibald McDonald Ellen O'Rourke 💍 1877/1143	Bachelor Spinster	[illegible] Servant	34 23	Timaru Timaru	18 months 10 months	Church, Timaru	[illegible]		31 March 1877	Jean A Coutenoir

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1899. 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).