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 304

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
33	25 February 1874	Isaac Short Martha Jane Birkett	Isaac Short Martha Jane Birkett 💍 1874/6364	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Laborer	26 18	Ohiro Wellington	26 yrs 18 yrs	House of Edw. Birkett wellington	74/162	Edw. Birkett father	25 February 1874	Rev. W. Bean
34	25 February 1874	William John Gandy Hephzibah Medley	William John Gandy Hepzibah Medley 💍 1874/6289	Widower Spinster	Merchant	39 19	Wellington Wellington	14 yrs 5 yrs	House of Mrs. Medley wellington	74/138	Hephzibah Medley Mother	25 February 1874	Rev. J. Paterson
35	24 February 1874	Patrick Langford Ann Henry	Patrick Crawford Ann Henry 💍 1874/6331	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	30 22	Wellington Wellington	1 day 3 days	Roman Catholic Cathedral Hill street	74/151		24 February 1874	Rev. J.B. Petit Jean
36	4 March 1874	Thomas McFarlane Mary Jane Price	Thomas McCarthy Mary Jane Price 💍 1874/6397	Bachelor Spinster	Livery Stable Keeper	26 19	Wellington Ngaurauranga	1 day 10 yrs	St. Peter's Church Years	74/174	Chas. Price Father	4 March 1874	Ven. Archdn Stock
37	4 March 1874	Helyar Wedderburn Annie Firia Roboam formerly Agatha	Helyar Wedderburn Annie Tiria Roboam 💍 1874/6394	Widower Widow	Native Department	23 25	Wellington Wellington	18 ms 14 mo	St. Peter's Church Years	74/173		4 March 1874	Ven. Archdn Stock
38	4 March 1874	Ebenezer Moochem Josephine Adams	Ebenezer Moxham Josephine Adams 💍 1874/5778	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	24 21	Wellington Tawa Flat	16 yrs 11 yrs	House of Rev. W. Bean	74/163		4 March 1874	Rev. W. Bean
39	6 March 1874	Henry Czerwonka Alice Emily Brown	Henry Gerwonka-Ledez Alice Emily Brown 💍 1874/10729	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	36 20	Karori Karori	5 mo 18 mo	English Church Karori		C.Y.Brown Father	6 March 1874	Rev. J.H. Tancred

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).