Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 205

District of New Plymouth Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
533	18 November 1872	Hugh Dalgleish Knight Mary Ann Grace Hookin Hainsher	Hugh Dalgliesh Knight Mary Ann Grace Hoskin 💍 1872/7889	Bachelor Spinster	Teller, Bank of New Zealand	28 25	New Plymouth New Plymouth	14 yrs 25 yrs	St Mary's Church New Plymouth	72/2103		18 November 1872	The Venble Archdeacon Govett
534	25 November 1872	George Ryan Lucinda Gray	George Ryan Lucinda Grey 💍 1872/7892	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	25 22	New Plymouth New Plymouth	25 years 12 years	St Mary's Church	72/2104		25 November 1872	The Venble Archdeacon Govett
535	9 December 1872	John Rigby Agnes McKenzie	John Rigby Agnes McKenzie 💍 1872/5702	Bachelor Spinster	Mounted Constable	32 22	Urenui Urenui	1 year 3 years	In the residence of Mrs Christina McKenzie Te Henui	72/1363		9 December 1872	The Rev Moses Breach
536	10 December 1872	Charles Muller Matilda Barnett	Charles Müller Matilda Falley Carnell 💍 1872/5726	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Daughter of Charles Barnett	26 16	New Plymouth New Plymouth	1 years 16 years	Henui Episcopal Church	72/1397	Charles Barnett, Father	10 December 1872	The Rev Henry Handley Brown
537	14 December 1872	John Handy Ellen Morsen	John Handy Ellen Morsen 💍 1872/5729	Widower Spinster	Farmer	37 37	Moangarei Moangarei	5 years 6 months	Mangorei Chapel	72/1372		14 December 1872	The Rev Henry Handley Brown
538	14 December 1872	Thomas Henry Stiol Margaret Callaghan	Thomas Henry Hirst Margaret Callaghan 💍 1872/7895	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 26	Mangaoraka Bell Block	4 years 2 years	Bell Block Church	72/2105		14 December 1872	The Venble Archdeacon Govett
539	19 December 1872	William Shanley Elizabeth Ann Birch	William Stanley Elizabeth Ann Birch 💍 1872/7898	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Daughter of John Hampton Birch of New Plymouth Mason	29 18	New Plymouth New Plymouth	2 years 8 years	Henui Episcopal Church	72/2106	John Hampton Birch (Father)	19 December 1872	The Venble Archdeacon Govett

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).

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).