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 693

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1877

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
15	18 April 1877	Thade McAuliffe Bessy Balong	Thade McAuliffe Bessie Moloney 💍 1877/1141	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	24 23	Timaru Timaru	2 years 2 years	Roman Catholic	77/1062		18 April 1877	Jean A. Goultenaire
16	25 April 1877	Thomas Bould Lucy Jennings	Thomas Bruce Fanny Jennings 💍 1877/1361	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman Dressmaker	34 21	Timaru Timaru	12 months 14 months	Residence of Thomas Bould	77/1311		26 April 1877	Charles E. Ward
17	2 May 1877	William Hall Jones		Widower	Carpenter	26	Timaru Timaru	18 months	Residence of Geo Telferner	77/1314	Declaration made that there is no person living in colony whose consent is required by law	2 May 1877	Charles E. Ward
18	5 May 1877	Robert Hamilton Rosalind Lucy Purves		Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	25 19	Timaru Timaru	3 days 1 year	High St, Timaru	77/1269		8 May 1877	William Gillies
19	7 May 1877	Amos Double Eliza Ellen	Amos Double Eliza Ellen King 💍 1877/1364	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 24	Timaru Timaru	18 years 2 years	Roman Catholic	77/1313	Daniel Heag, Father	7 May 1877	Charles E. Ward
20	7 May 1877	Alfred Farque Susan Gant	Alfred Tarfuse Susan Cant 💍 1877/1363 Alfred File Susan Winter 💍 1878/325	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	28 20	Timaru Timaru	27 months 2 years	Residence of Wm Tubb	77/1312	George Gant, Father	7 May 1877	Charles E. Ward
21	8 May 1877	William Newham Elizabeth Harding	William Renshaw Elizabeth Harding 💍 1877/1366	Bachelor Widow	Carrier	49 49	Timaru Timaru	11 years 13 years	Johnston, Darly, Timaru	77/1315		8 May 1877	Charles E. Ward
22	11 May 1877	Walter Chisnall Mary Hamilton	Walter Chisnall Mary Hamilton 💍 1877/1139	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 24	Timaru Timaru	7 years 2 years	Residence of A. Goultenaire	77/1060		16 May 1877	Jean A. Goultenaire
23	11 May 1877	John Carmichael Mary Meddock	John Carmichael May Reddock 💍 1877/1344	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman Servant	28 24	Timaru Timaru	15 months 13 months	Joseph Johnson, Timaru	77/1270		16 May 1877	William Gillies
24	18 May 1877	Bartholomew O'Roake Margaret O'Sullivan	Bartholomew O'Rourke Margaret O'Sullivan 💍 1877/1140	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 23	Timaru Timaru	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	Roman Catholic Church	77/1061		18 May 1877	Jean A. Goultenaire
26	21 May 1877	James Gunn Praday Maggie Paton		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	32 16	Timaru Timaru	3 days 10 days	Hamilton	77/1241	Margaret Hamilton, Brother	21 May 1877	George Barclay

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 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).