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 695

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar M. Berwick

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
36	05 July 1877	John Charles Binshin Sarah Drake	John Charles Buiskui Sarah Drake 💍 1877/1899	Bachelor Spinster	Radway Servant	22 18	Timaru Timaru	18 months residence of Jas Rothwell 2 years Timaru	77/1855	Edward Drake Fathers	05 July 1877	M. G. Oliver
37	08 July 1877	Alexander Brown Fanny Platford	Alexander Black Fanny Priscilla Ford 💍 1877/1610 Alexander Crossan Fanny Kilgour 💍 1877/1913	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Barmaid	27 22	Timaru Timaru	8 months residence of Madlow 9 days from Madlow	77/1845		08 July 1877	Wm Gillies
38	12 July 1877	Eustace Frank Allen Annie Noonan	Eustace Frank Allen Annie Noonan 💍 1877/1904	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 18	Timaru Timaru	3 days office of Registrar of Marriage 3 days Timaru	77/1859	Jessie Burger Mother, Opili George	12 July 1877	Registrar of Marriage
39	23 July 1877	George Thomas Waters Helen Ross	George Thomas Waters Helen Ross 💍 1877/3126	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	24 26	Timaru Timaru	18 months Residence of 12 months @ In Ross	77/1998		23 July 1877	B. T. Halluves
40	25 July 1877	James Hawkins Mary Foden	James Hawkins Mary Foden 💍 1877/1897	Bachelor Spinster	Platilager	32 23	Timaru Timaru	4 days 7 years	77/1853		25 July 1877	M. G. Oliver
41	26 July 1877	Michael Sheehan Mary O'Donohue	Michael Sheehan Mary Donoghue 💍 1877/1892	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 22	Timaru Timaru	3 days Roman Catholic 12 months Church	77/1848		25 July 1877	Jean a Goutenoire
42	27 July 1877	Daniel McLeurn Hanora Comer		Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	37 27	Timaru Timaru	3 years Roman Catholic 5 weeks Church	77/1850		27 July 1877	Jean a Goutenoire
43	04 August 1877	Alexander Campbell Pringle Eliza Ann Bodley	Alexander Campbell Pringle Eliza Ann Bodley Kelland 💍 1877/1900	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 24	Timaru Timaru	4 months residence of John Holland 10 years Marksafe Gorge	77/1856		04 August 1877	Geo Foster
44	04 August 1877	Alfred Wm Love Wyatt Charlotte Loader	Alfred Ambrose Wyatt Charlotte Loader 💍 1877/1898	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 29	Timaru Timaru	12 years Residence of Geo Loader Esq 11 years Timaru	77/1854		04 August 1877	Wm G. Oliver
45	08 August 1877	Timothy O'Donohue Mary McDonald	Timothy O'Donoghue Mary McDonald 💍 1877/1896 John Gormick Mary McDonald 💍 1877/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	24 23	Timaru Timaru	3 years Roman Catholic 15 months Church	77/1852		08 August 1877	Jean a Goutenoire

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).