Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 789

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1878

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
25	27 April 1878	John Duff Ellen Fullimore	John Luff Ellen Cullimore 💍 1878/1283	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 18	Timaru Timaru	2 months One month	Registrar's Office, Timaru	78/1358	Joseph Fullimore, Father	11 May 1878	C. E. Cooper, Registrar
26	6 May 1878	George Alfred Double Annie Double	George Alfred Frampton Annie Double 💍 1878/1491	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	21 19	Timaru Timaru	4 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	78/1355	Robert Double, Father	20 May 1878	Rev. J. H. Simmonds, Wesp
27	11 June 1878	James Londros Margaret Blatter Leeson	James Tondro Margaret Beattie Leeson 💍 1878/1282	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	34 27	Fairlie Creek Fairlie Creek	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Timaru	78/1349		11 May 1878	C. E. Cooper, Registrar
28	20 June 1878	Thomas Harris Fanny Hill	Thomas Harris Fanny Gill 💍 1878/1475 Thomas Harris Honora Carroll 💍 1878/2239	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 22	Timaru Timaru	4 months 4 months	The dwelling House of Thomas Harris, Brown St, Timaru	78/1362		20 May 1878	Rev. J. H. Simmonds, Wes
29	21 June 1878	Rowland Winstley Lucy Emily Hester	Rowland Lindsay Lucy Emily Hester 💍 1878/1476	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Cannington Lyttelton	3 days 3 days	Dwelling house of Rev. J. A. Simmonds	78/1363		21 May 1878	Rev. J. H. Simmonds, Wes
30	21 June 1878	William Westoby Mary Hammond	William Wistoby Mary Hammond 💍 1878/1464	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 20	Timaru Timaru	1 year 3 days	Dwelling house of John Laudy, Otipua Valley, near Timaru	78/1348			Born in the June, Rev. Wm. Gillies, Pres

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).