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 807

District of Temuka Quarter ending 31 December 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
16	19 October 1881	Julius Siegert Margaret Morley	Julius Siegert Margaret Morley 💍 1881/2868	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	29 23	Temuka Temuka	5 years 6 years	Roman Catholic Church Temuka	81/2923		19 October 1881	Rev. S. Samuel
17	2 November 1881	John James Heap Elizabeth Tombs	John James Heap Elizabeth Tombs 💍 1881/2725	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	21 24	Temuka Rangiora	12 years 6 years	English Church Sefton	81/2922		2 November 1881	Rev. Sherwood
18	16 November 1881	J. F. W. Hayhurst Amelia Brown	John Turnbull Murray Hayhurst Amelia Brown 💍 1881/2867	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Temuka Temuka	3 years 7 years	English Church Temuka		Job Brown, father	16 November 1881	Rev. W. Harper, Temuka
19	21 November 1881	James Grace Hannah Brosnahan	James Grace Hannah Brosnahan 💍 1881/2870	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Temuka Temuka	1 year 4 weeks	Roman Catholic Church Temuka	81/2925		21 November 1881	Rev. S. Samuel
20	22 November 1881	Timothy Sullivan Ellen Sullivan	Timothy Sullivan Ellen Sullivan 💍 1881/2869	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic Servant	28 27	Temuka Temuka	3 weeks 1 month	Roman Catholic Church Temuka	81/2924		22 November 1881	Rev. S. Samuel
21	5 December 1881	Anthony Mann Rose Dandy	Anthony Mann Rose Dandy 💍 1881/2871	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 21	Temuka Temuka	5 days 5 days	Residence of D. Gordon	81/2926		5 December 1881	Rev. S. Gordon, p.m.
22	19 December 1881	J. J. Sickell Mary Louisa Roberts	John Francis Tickell Mary Louisa Roberts 💍 1881/2865	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 16	Temuka Temuka	4 days 10 years	Residence of W. Roberts	81/2918	James Roberts, father	19 December 1881	Rev. John Lee, p.m.
23	30 December 1881	J. Smith Annie P. Simpson	James Smith Annie Philip Simpson 💍 1882/1025	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Temuka Temuka	4 days 12 years	Residence of D. Gordon	82/615	William Simpson, father	30 December 1881	Rev. S. Gordon, p.m.
24	30 December 1881	H. Smith Frances Eagle	William Smith Frances Eagle 💍 1882/1026	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	23 18	Temuka Temuka	4 days 10 years	Residence of D. Gordon	82/616	Elizabeth Eagle, mother	30 December 1881	Rev. S. Gordon, p.m.

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 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).