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 694

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
26	22 May 1877	Emanuel Molfe Julia Savage	Emanuel Wolfe Julia Savage 💍 1877/1367	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Cook	24 21	Timaru Timaru	4 years residence of 12 months	Morris, Sandie Town	77/1316		22 May 1877	Chas E. Ward
27	23 May 1877	James Chalker Margaret Prackey	James Chalker Margaret MacKay 💍 1877/1136	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 21	Timaru Timaru	1 month to Sharp 2 days	Church, Timaru	77/1057		23 May 1877	Henry M. Harper
28	23 May 1877	Hugh McTegue Charlotte Graham	Hugh McTague Caroline Charlotte Graham 💍 1877/1138	Bachelor Spinster	Fencer Servant	25 22	Marcora Timaru	4 years 4 months	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	77/1059		28 May 1877	Jean A Gautenoise
29	28 May 1877	George William Sillar Catherine Paul	George William Sellars Catherine Jane Burnett 💍 1877/1345	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	18 19	Timaru Timaru	4 days 5 months	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	77/1241	Nathaniel Sillar, Father	28 May 1877	William Gillies
30	08 June 1877	John Amoo Ellen Math	John Amos Ellen Work 💍 1877/1368	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Servant	26 24	Timaru Timaru	2 years residence of 2 years	Church, Timaru	77/1314		08 June 1877	Chas E. Ward
31	09 June 1877	William Thomas Barnett Sarah Ann Hughes	William Barnett Mary Hughes 💍 1878/117	Bachelor Spinster	Land Broker Production	29 20	Timaru Timaru	8 years to Sharp 4 years	Church	77/1058	Caroline Hughes, Father	09 June 1877	Henry M. Harper
32	11 June 1877	John Henry Lydia Gosney	John Hendry Lydia Gosney 💍 1877/1376	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Dressmaker	24 20	Bluecliffs Timaru	7 years residence 3 years	Methodist Church, Timaru	77/1318		11 June 1877	Chas E. Ward
33	13 June 1877	George John Sealey Christina Sanders	George John Sealey Christina Sinclair Robb 💍 1877/1346	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Housemaid	23 26	Otipua Timaru	8 years residence of 4 years	George Leaton, Timaru	77/1272		13 June 1877	William Gillies
34	14 June 1877	Lachlan McCormick Jane Ann Barnes	Lachlan McCormack Jane Ann Poneny 💍 1877/1293	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 26	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	3 days 3 days	Presbyterian Church, Pleasant Point	77/1242		14 June 1877	George Barclay
35	14 June 1877	Anthony Quirk Inlead Eliza Annie Matthews		Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	32 18	Pleasant Mount Pleasant Mount	3 days 9 years	Presbyterian Church	77/1243	Thomas Matthews, Father	14 June 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).