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 151

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 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
554	1 April 1875	Albert Wood Ann Selina Taylor	Albert Wood Ann Selina Taylor 💍 1875/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Eng. Driver Domestic	36 years 30 years	Thames Thames	1 year 2 years	In the building known as the Presbyterian Chapel, Tararu Flat, Thames	75/1084		12 April 1875	Rev. V. Lush
555	6 April 1875	Richard Kerr Margaret Collins	Richard Kerr Margaret Collins 💍 1875/715	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	36 years 24 years	Thames Thames	6 years 1 month	R.C. Chapel	75/1625		6 April 1875	Rev. James Mahoney
556	9 April 1875	William Hearn Elizabeth Fitzpatrick	William Hearn Elizabeth Fitzpatrick 💍 1875/1226	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	32 years 23 years	Hape Thames	7 years 6 months	In the dwelling house occupied by Revd. James Hill, Thames	75/1298		9 April 1875	Revd. James Hill
557	20 April 1875	Archibald Buchanan Annie Willis	Archibald Buchanan Annie Willis 💍 1875/1227	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 years 18 years	Thames Thames	1 year 4 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Henry Willis, Campbell Street, Thames	75/1299	Henry Willis, the Father	20 April 1875	Revd. James Hill
558	27 April 1875	William Carpenter Emily Robertson Drury	William Carpenter Emily Robertson Drury 💍 1875/1186	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	41 years 19 years	Thames Thames	5 years 3 months	St. George's Church, Thames	75/1300	Donald McStuart, the Guardian	27 April 1875	Revd. V. Lush
559	28 April 1875	Alexander Bonella Mary Jane Alvin	Alexander Binella Mary Jane Elvin 💍 1875/1228	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	37 years 24 years	Thames Thames	4 years 5 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Thomas Purrop, Parry St, Thames	75/1301		28 April 1875	Revd. James Hill
560	1 May 1875	Frederick Robinson Packard Signature Ann Chilcott	Frederick Robinson Packard Elizabeth Ann Chilcott 💍 1875/820	Bachelor Widow	Miner	40 years 44 years	Thames Thames	7 years 7 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Shortland District	75/1248		1 May 1875	E. H. N. Power
561	3 May 1875	John Stuart Kelly Elvira Izetta Mourant	John Stewart Kelly Elvira Izetta Meurant 💍 1875/884	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 24 years	Thames Thames	7 days 14 days	In the dwelling house occupied by Frederick Horton, Crippsands Street, Moanatairi	75/1027		3 May 1875	Revd. John Crump

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).