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 221

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1872 Registrar R. C. Hammerton

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
71	12 June 1872	Robert OConnor Elizabeth Smyth Martin	Robert O'Connor Elizabeth Smyth Martin 💍 1872/9293 Robert O'Connor Elisabeth Smyth Martin 💍 1872/5061	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Service daughter of Jno Martin, Wellington, Merchant	32 23	Wellington Wellington	8 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Hill Street; St. Peter's Church, Te Aro	72/1796 & 72/353		6 July 1872	Revd. J. B. Petit Jean & Ven. Archdn Stock
74	21 June 1872	Samuel Sanson Mary Ann Frethal	Samuel Sanson Mary Ann Frethey 💍 1872/4908							72/1092		6 August 1872	Revd. G. S. Harper
78	2 July 1872	Gordon Harding Saxby Katharine Greenwood	Gordon Harding Saxby Katherine Greenwood 💍 1872/4893	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer daughter of D. J. Greenwood, Motueka, Nelson	34 20	Wellington Wellington	1 week 2 years	St. Paul's Church, Thorndon	72/1087	J. D. Greenwood, Father	2 July 1872	Revd. B. W. Harvey
79	3 July 1872	Alexander Bannatyne McMillan Annie Barrett	Alexander B McMillan Anne Barrett 💍 1872/9320	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	31 21	Wellington Wellington	18 months 13 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Boulcott Street	72/2603		3 July 1872	Revd. J. J. P. O'Reilly
80	10 July 1872	Robert Cole Furness Sophia Jane Bills	Robert Cole Furness Sophia Jane Bills 💍 1872/9275	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter daughter of Bills, Wellington Laborer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	24 years 10 years	House of John Swanson, Sydney Street	72/2583		25 July 1872	Revd. T. Buddle
81	13 July 1872	Edward Turner Mary Jane Walker	[No matching marriage registration has been located; "Not married by Archdn Stock or regd at St Peters Church see his letter 6 Sep 73"]	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper daughter of Robt Walker, Wellington, Laborer	28 17	Wellington Wellington	5 weeks 17 years	St. Peter's Church, Te Aro		Robt Walker, Father	13 July 1872	Venble Archdn Stock; Not married by Archdn Stock or regd at St Peters Church see his letter 6 Sep 73
82	15 July 1872	Peter Fergenson Mary Ebutts	Peter Fergeuson Mary Butts 💍 1872/5064	Bachelor Spinster	Hulk Keeper	28 22	Wellington Wellington	5 months 10 days	House of Rev. J. Paterson	72/1144		15 July 1872	Rev. J. Paterson

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).