Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 829

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1883

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
1	13 April 1883	Thos. McDonald Ann Eliza McDowell	Thomas MacDonald Ann Eliza McDowell 💍 1883/3335	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	35 19	The Holds Station Burkes Pass	4 days 4 days	Timaru Hotel	83/1540	Having Father	13 April 1883	Rev. Geo. Barclay, Presbyterian
2	14 April 1883	John McKelvey Amelia A. Sams	John McKelvy Amelia Ann Sams 💍 1883/1516	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 18	Timaru Town Sutherlands	7 years 18 years	Residence of Jno. A. Sams	83/1427	A. Sams Mother	14 April 1883	Rev. D. McLennan, Presbyterian
3	17 April 1883	Maxwell S. Black Mary Stanley Shield	Maxwell Spens Black Marie Stanley Shield 💍 1883/1525	Bachelor Widow	No occupation at present	29 29	Mashueri Timaru	9 years 5 days	St. Mary's Schoolhouse	83/1433		17 April 1883	Ven. H. W. Harper, Church of England
4	20 April 1883	Henry Lambert Laura E. G. Jones	Henry Lambert Laura Eleanor Georgina Jones 💍 1883/1353	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21	Timaru Timaru	6 years 18 years	Primitive Methodist Church	83/1440		20 April 1883	Revd. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist
5	23 April 1883	Charles McDougall Jane Taylor	Charles McDougall Jane Taylor 💍 1883/1524	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason	28 25	Timaru Timaru	8 years 8 years	Dwelling House of Robt. Scarf	83/1434		23 April 1883	Revd. Wm. Gillespie, Presbyterian
6	23 April 1883	John Tredrea Louisa Gardner	John Tredrea Louisa Gardner 💍 1883/1335	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	21 21	Timaru Timaru	3 years 6 years	Dwelling House of J. I. Scott	83/1438		23 April 1883	Revd. W. H. Beer, Wesleyan
403	2 April 1883	Patrick Kean Hannah McAuliffe	Patrick Kean Hannah McAuliff 💍 1883/1346	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 23	Timaru Timaru	6 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	83/1439		2 April 1883	Rev. I. Devoy, Roman Catholic

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).