Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 1110

District of Riverton Quarter ending 31 December 1880 Registrar Benjamin Bailey

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

7 October 1880

Samuel Taylor
Catherine Ann Duffy

Samuel Taylor
Catherine Annie Duffy
💍 1880/425

Widower
Spinster

Storeman

38
21

Riverton
Riverton

3 years
13 years

Roman Catholic Chapel Sth. Riverton

80/3024

7 October 1880

Rev Father Kehoe (Roman Catholic)

No	66
Date of Notice	7 October 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Taylor	Catherine Ann Duffy
BDM Match (95%)	Samuel Taylor	Catherine Annie Duffy
	💍 1880/425
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	38	21
Dwelling Place	Riverton	Riverton
Length of Residence	3 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel Sth. Riverton
Folio	80/3024
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 October 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Kehoe (Roman Catholic)

1 November 1880

Michael Crean
Mary Maguire

Michael Crean
Mary Maguire
💍 1880/424

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic Servant

22
22

Otautau
Riverton

5 years
6 months

Roman Catholic Chapel Sth. Riverton

80/3023

1 November 1880

Rev Father Kehoe (Roman Catholic)

No	67
Date of Notice	1 November 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Crean	Mary Maguire
	💍 1880/424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic Servant
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Otautau	Riverton
Length of Residence	5 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel Sth. Riverton
Folio	80/3023
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 November 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Kehoe (Roman Catholic)

17 November 1880

John Crooks
Mary O'Gready

"Certificate not issued"

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Dometic Servant

24
19

Wrights Bush
Wrights Bush

9 months
11 months

Registrars Office Riverton

Certificate refused for 14 days

not applied for at the expiration of 14 days - See page 1108

No	68
Date of Notice	17 November 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Crooks	Mary O'Gready
BDM Match (8%)
	💍 "Certificate not issued"
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Dometic Servant
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wrights Bush	Wrights Bush
Length of Residence	9 months	11 months
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Riverton
Folio	Certificate refused for 14 days
Consent	not applied for at the expiration of 14 days - See page 1108
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

24 December 1880

Brigham Hancock
Hannah Cameron

Brigham Hancock
Hannah Cameron
💍 1880/445

Bachelor
Spinster

Shoemaker
Domestic Servant

23
17

Thornbury
Riverton

17 years
3 years

Presbyterian Manse, Riverton

80/3020

Margaret Nickle (Mother)

24 December 1880

Rev James Cameron Presbyterian

No	69
Date of Notice	24 December 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Brigham Hancock	Hannah Cameron
	💍 1880/445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shoemaker	Domestic Servant
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Thornbury	Riverton
Length of Residence	17 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, Riverton
Folio	80/3020
Consent	Margaret Nickle (Mother)
Date of Certificate	24 December 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev James Cameron Presbyterian

29 December 1880

George Lewis Maclachlan
Sims - written above Lewis in pencil.
Margaret Bailey

George Sims MacLachlan
Margaret Bailey
💍 1880/422

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
19

Sth Riverton
Sth Riverton

2 years
19 yrs

Residence of Mr Bailey, Sth Riverton

80/3021

Benj. Bailey, (Father)

29 December 1880

Rev James Cameron Presbyterian

No	70
Date of Notice	29 December 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Lewis Maclachlan Sims - written above Lewis in pencil.	Margaret Bailey
BDM Match (89%)	George Sims MacLachlan	Margaret Bailey
	💍 1880/422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Sth Riverton	Sth Riverton
Length of Residence	2 years	19 yrs
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Bailey, Sth Riverton
Folio	80/3021
Consent	Benj. Bailey, (Father)
Date of Certificate	29 December 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev James Cameron Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).