Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 302

District of Wellington Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
19	28 January 1874	Charles Athelstand Cornish Alice Mary Whitten	Charles Athelstane Cornish Alice Mary Whittem 💍 1874/6430	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 28	Wellington Wellington	9 mo. 5 yrs	Church of England, Taita	74/185		13 February 1874	Ven. Archdn Stock
20	29 January 1874	William Henry West Mary Late	William Henry West Mary Kate Hales 💍 1874/6316	Bachelor Spinster	Congregational Minister d. late C. H. Hale	32 18	Wellington Wellington	3 yrs many years	House of Joseph Burns, Hab. Point Terrace	74/147	His Honor Mr Justice Johnston	Feb 3 1874	Rev. J. Moir
21	31 January 1874	Marten Luman Mary Harriet Manners	Martin Luman Mary Harriet Prouse 💍 1874/6346	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	42 24	Wellington Wellington	7 yrs 4 mo	Wesleyan Church, Per lo Mosley Rouse Street	74/156		Jan 31 1874	Rev. C. Morley
22	2 February 1874	John Gwnas Emily Ann Little	John Ownas Emily Ann Little 💍 1874/6421	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 22	Wellington Wellington	3 dys 3 dys	St. Paul's Church, Thomdon	74/181		Feb 2 1874	Rev. B. W. Harvey
23	3 February 1874	John Henry Walker Mary Jane Alice Oakford	John Henry Walker Mary Irene Alice Oakford 💍 1874/6355	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 25	Wellington Karori	6 mo 7 mo	House of J. H. Walker, Spitzer Street	74/159		Feb 14 1874	Rev. J. S. Smalley
24	4 February 1874	Thomas Herbert Bilby Jane Gunter	Thomas Herbert John Bilby Jane Gunter 💍 1874/6406	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	25 24	Wellington Wellington	1 mo. 10 mo	St. Peter's Church	74/177		Feb 4 1874	Ven: Archdn Stock
25	5 February 1874	Edward Monro Menzies Maria Latter	Edward Monro Menzies Maria Tatler 💍 1874/6424	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster Jas. Latter, Brighton, Sussex, Saddler	24 21	Wellington Wellington	4 dys 5 dys	St. Paul's Church, Thorndon	74/182		Feb 7 1874	Rev. B.W. Harvey

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).