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 0800

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
75	12 November 1878	James Cubbison Taylor Mary Elizabeth Hood	James Cubbram Taylor Maggy Elizabeth Horr 💍 1878/2920	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	32 29	Timaru Near Timaru	11 years 1 year	Dwelling house of Mrs Agnes Taylor, Arthur St, Timaru	78/2965		12 November 1878	Rev. Wm Gillies, Pres
76	13 November 1878	Eugene Sullivan Norah Barrett	Eugene O'Sullivan Norah Barrett 💍 1878/2941	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Domestic Servant	24 21	Timaru Timaru	2 years 12 years	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	78/2962		29 November 1878	Rev. F.L. Chataignier, R.C.
77	18 November 1878	James Richard Whitford Maria Dorcas Newton	James Richard Whitford Maria Dorcas Newton 💍 1878/2931	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	21 21	Timaru Timaru	3 months 10 years	Dwelling House of Mrs Edw. Newton, Timaru	78/2945		18 November 1878	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Prim
78	20 November 1878	Thomas Phelan Catherine Hynes	Thomas Phelan Catherine Hynes 💍 1878/2940 James Milne Katherine Hynes 💍 1878/3291	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Cook	37 40	Timaru Timaru	2 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	78/2961		20 November 1878	Rev. F.L. Chataignier, R.C.
79	22 November 1878	James Moore Emily Thomson	James Moore Emily Thomson 💍 1878/2932	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	23 21	Timaru Near Timaru	3 days 3 days	Dwelling House of John H. Stitch, Timaru	78/2976	John H. Stitch, Father	22 November 1878	Rev. Jos. Sharp, Prim
80	2 December 1878	Richard Sandilands Catherine Julia Stitch	Richard Sandilands Catherine Julia Hitch 💍 1878/2922	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 19	Timaru Timaru	3 years 10 years	Dwelling House of John Henry Stitch, Timaru	78/2964	John H. Stitch, Father	2 December 1878	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).