Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 312

District of Greytown Quarter ending 31 March 1875 Registrar J. C. I. Boys

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

163

25 February 1875

Martin Fisher Baird
Katherine Hume

Martin Fisher Baird
Catherine Hume
💍 1875/485

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

22 years
22

Greytown
Greytown

1 year
2 "

Residence of Peter Hume, Tararua

75/528

Peter Hume (father)

27 February 1875

Rev. A. Hume

No	163
Date of Notice	25 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Fisher Baird	Katherine Hume
BDM Match (96%)	Martin Fisher Baird	Catherine Hume
	💍 1875/485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	22 years	22
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	1 year	2 "
Marriage Place	Residence of Peter Hume, Tararua
Folio	75/528
Consent	Peter Hume (father)
Date of Certificate	27 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hume

164

27 February 1875

Hugh Gillies
Lucy Linnie Hume

Hugh Gillies
Lucy Linnie Hume
💍 1875/486

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

22 years
19

Greytown
Greytown

2 years
2 "

Residence of Peter Hume, Tararua

75/529

Peter Hume (father)

27 February 1875

Rev. A. Hume

No	164
Date of Notice	27 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Gillies	Lucy Linnie Hume
	💍 1875/486
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	22 years	19
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	2 years	2 "
Marriage Place	Residence of Peter Hume, Tararua
Folio	75/529
Consent	Peter Hume (father)
Date of Certificate	27 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hume

165

13 March 1875

William Noble
Fanny Hester Young

William Noble
Fanny Hester Young
💍 1875/417

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

22 years
21 years

Greytown
Greytown

7 days
10 "

Office of Registrar, Greytown

75/460

15 March 1875

J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

No	165
Date of Notice	13 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Noble	Fanny Hester Young
	💍 1875/417
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	22 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	7 days	10 "
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Greytown
Folio	75/460
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 March 1875
Officiating Minister	J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

166

20 March 1875

Alfred James Wagland
Mary Ann Wyett

Alfred James Wagland
Mary Ann Wyatt
💍 1875/426

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

23 years
24

Greytown
Greytown

6 months
6 "

Office of Registrar, Greytown

75/461

20 March 1875

J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

No	166
Date of Notice	20 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred James Wagland	Mary Ann Wyett
BDM Match (96%)	Alfred James Wagland	Mary Ann Wyatt
	💍 1875/426
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	23 years	24
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Greytown
Length of Residence	6 months	6 "
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Greytown
Folio	75/461
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1875
Officiating Minister	J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

167

25 March 1875

Charles Joseph
Ann Elizabeth Watts

Charles Joseph Jury
Ann Elizabeth Oates
💍 1875/488

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26 years
23

Greytown
Carterton

13 years
13 "

Residence Church, Carterton

75/530

25 March 1875

Rev. A. Hume

No	167
Date of Notice	25 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Joseph	Ann Elizabeth Watts
BDM Match (82%)	Charles Joseph Jury	Ann Elizabeth Oates
	💍 1875/488
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26 years	23
Dwelling Place	Greytown	Carterton
Length of Residence	13 years	13 "
Marriage Place	Residence Church, Carterton
Folio	75/530
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Hume

168

27 March 1875

William Edwin Chapman
Mary Ann Harrod

William Edwin Chapman
Mary Ann Harrod
💍 1875/437

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

27 years
23

Featherston
Featherston

12 months
4 "

Office of Registrar, Greytown

75/462

27 March 1875

J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

No	168
Date of Notice	27 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edwin Chapman	Mary Ann Harrod
	💍 1875/437
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	27 years	23
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Featherston
Length of Residence	12 months	4 "
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Greytown
Folio	75/462
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1875
Officiating Minister	J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

169

31 March 1875

Andrew Jonsson
Ingria Andersdatter Jonsson

Anders Jonsson
Ingrid Andersson
💍 1875/444

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26 years
24

Carterton
Carterton

14 days
14 days

Office of Registrar, Greytown

75/463

31 March 1875

J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

No	169
Date of Notice	31 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Jonsson	Ingria Andersdatter Jonsson
BDM Match (67%)	Anders Jonsson	Ingrid Andersson
	💍 1875/444
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26 years	24
Dwelling Place	Carterton	Carterton
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar, Greytown
Folio	75/463
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1875
Officiating Minister	J. C. I. Boys, Registrar, Greytown

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 1903. 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).