Intentions to Marry, 1881

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840393, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

Page 635

District of Ross Quarter ending 31 March 1881

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
136	12 February 1881	William Donald McKey Ida Octavio Kildahl	William Donald McKay Ida Octavia Kildahl 💍 1881/445	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster Schoolmistress	23 22	Ross Ross	2 years 8 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Ross	81/359	12 February 1881	W. Blane, Registrar
137	2 February 1881	John McKay Annie Mulhearn	John McKay Annie Mulhearne 💍 1881/448	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Barmaid	40 26	Ross Ross	21 years 8 years	Roman Catholic Church, Ross	81/362	21 February 1881	Rev Eugene Pertuis, R. Catholic Curate, Ross
138	21 February 1881	Andrew Falkner Sarah Kirkwood	Andrew Folkner Sarah Kirkwood 💍 1881/444	Bachelor Spinster	Mailman Servant	41 19	Mikonui Beach Ross	10 years 9 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Ross	81/358	March 2nd 1881	W. Blane, Registrar
139	25 February 1881	Johann Hammelskamp Mary Colvin	Johann Hemmelskemp Mary Colvin 💍 1881/1090	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	40 34	Ross Ross	12 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Ross	81/1027	25 February 1881	Rev Eugene Pertuis, R. Catholic Curate, Ross
140	25 February 1881	Joseph Raphael Loyer Mary Jane Frounce	Joseph Raphael Leger Mary Jane Trounce 💍 1881/446	Bachelor Widow	Miner Servant	48 35	Sailors Gully Ross	15 years 5 months	Church of England, Ross	81/360	25 February 1881	Rev C. E. Chambers, Ch of England, Ross
141	28 February 1881	Thomas Ferguson Jessie Shearer	Thomas Ferguson Jessie Shearer 💍 1881/447	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Domestic duties	30 20	Manginui Mikonui Beach	6 years 12 years	Dwelling house of Bride's Father, Mikonui Beach	81/601	1 March 1881	Rev C. E. Chambers, Ch of England, Ross
142	1 March 1881	George Purvis Margaret Louisa Rogerson	George Purvis Margaret Louisa Rogerson 💍 1881/449	Bachelor Widow	Miner Housekeeper	37 52	Ross Ross	14 years 14 years	Dwelling house of Bridegroom, Ross	81/363	17 March 1881	Rev Eugene Pertuis, R. Catholic Curate, Ross

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).