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 802

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 December 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
81	2 December 1878	Michael James Robertson Mary Ann Wilson	Michael James Robertson May Ann Wilson 💍 1878/2921 George Morris Mary Ann Wilson 💍 1878/3117	Bachelor Spinster	Draper's Assistant	22 20	Ashburton Timaru	4 weeks 19 years	Presbyterian Church, Ashburton	78/2966	John Wilson, Father	3 December 1878	Rev. Mr. Gillies, Pres
82	5 December 1878	John George Macpherson Alice Frances Melton	John George MacPherson Alice Frances Metton 💍 1878/2933	Bachelor Spinster	Managing Clerk	21 20	Timaru Timaru	3 years 4 years	St. Mary's Church, Timaru	78/2971	Elizabeth Melton, Mother	7 December 1878	Rev. H. W. Harper, CofE
83	19 December 1878	Archibald Walker Agnes Mc[illegible] Smith	Archibald Walker Agnes McNeish 💍 1878/2923	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 22	Timaru Timaru	3 years 2 years	Dwellinghouse of Archibald Walker, near Timaru	78/2968	[illegible]	19 December 1878	Rev. Wm. Gillies, Pres
84	11 December 1878	William Forster Goldthorp Mary Ann Goldthorp	William Forster Mary Ann Goldthorpe 💍 1878/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	34 26	Christchurch Timaru	7 days 4 weeks	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	78/2848	[illegible]	11 December 1878	Rev. E. G. Penny, CofE
85	20 December 1878	William Edward Ninnerney Mary Anne Josephine Gray	William Edward Kinnerney Mary Ann Josephine Gray 💍 1879/170	Bachelor Spinster	Articled Clerk to Solicitor	25 24	Timaru Auckland	3 years 14 years	Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Sophie Gray, Wellington, St. Auckland	78/62	[illegible]	20 December 1878	Rev. John Sheehan, CofE
86	21 December 1878	Henry Burall Courtis Elizabeth Sarah Clarke	Henry Burall Courtis Elizabeth Sarah Clarke 💍 1878/2934	Bachelor Spinster	Gas Engineer	27 21	Timaru Timaru	3 years 14 years	Dwellinghouse Richard Butler, St. Timaru	78/2978	[illegible]	21 December 1878	Rev. J. H. Simmonds, Pres

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).