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 302

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1875

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
227	22 October 1875	Abraham King Mary Sarrott	Abraham King Mary Jarrott 💍 1875/2559	Bachelor Spinster	Woodcutter	22 18	Johnsonville Wellington	13 months 1 month	House of Rev. I. Paterson, The Terrace	75/2481	Mother, Ellen Loag, formerly Sarrott	22 October 1875	Rev. I. Paterson
228	25 October 1875	Thomas Williams Martha Elizabeth Rodgers	Thomas Williams Martha Elizabeth Rogers 💍 1875/2468 Thomas Williams Mary Ann Gore 💍 1875/2182 John Williams Emma Elizabeth Joy 💍 1875/442	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	28 21	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	75/2633		25 October 1875	Registrar of Marriages, Wellington
229	26 October 1875	John Slutt Ellen Cook	John Jillett Ellen Cook 💍 1875/2232	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Domestic Servant	23 20	Taita Taita	3 years 6 months	House of John White, Lower Hutt	75/2314	No one in Colony	26 October 1875	Rev. I. B. Richardson
230	29 October 1875	William Woodfield Martha Eliza Mears	William Woodfield Martha Eliza Mears 💍 1875/2345	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	23 18	Wellington Wellington	2 years 18 years	House of James William Mears, Albert Street	75/2429	Eliza Mears, Mother & Guardians	29 October 1875	Revd. W. H. Dewsbury
231	5 November 1875	Edward Cuff Catherine Masterton	Edwin Cuff Catherine Masterton 💍 1875/2467	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	36 25	Greytown but residing in Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Wellington	75/2632		5 November 1875	Registrar of Marriages, Wellington
232	5 November 1875	James Shiels Margaret Ellen Edwards	James Shiels Margaret Ellen Edmonds 💍 1875/2584	Bachelor Spinster	Theatrical Agent	21 18	Wellington Wellington	1 year 18 years	House of Rev. John Muir, The Terrace	75/2621	Thomas Yates, father of bride	5 November 1875	Rev. John Muir
233	5 November 1875	Thomas Turner Mary Elizabeth Gerald	Thomas Turner Mary Fitzgerald 💍 1875/3142 Thomas Turner Eliza Berry 💍 1875/231 Thomas Turner Maria Gruber 💍 1875/2854	Bachelor Spinster	Constable A.C. Dressmaker	30 21	Wellington Wellington	4 months 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Boulcott Street, Wellington	75/2625		5 November 1875	Rev. Father H. Kearney
234	8 November 1875	Thomas Masson Marion Breckonridge	Thomas Manson Marion Breckenridge 💍 1875/2585	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Milliner	30 29	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	House of John Masson, Roxburgh Street, Wellington	75/2622		8 November 1875	Rev. John Muir

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 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).