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 211

District of New Plymouth 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
9	3 April 1875	William Luke Helen Sole	William Luke Ellen Sole 💍 1875/963	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Huirangi Dist Tukapa	1 year 2 months	In the Hurdon Primitive Methodist Chapel near New Plymouth	75/982		3 April 1875	The Rev John Dumbell
10	13 April 1875	Patrick Burke Catherine McDermid	Patrick Burke Catherine McDermid 💍 1875/1561	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	39 34	Urenui Urenui	15 months 4 months	In the residence of William McDonald, Lemon Street, New Plymouth	75/1611		13 April 1875	The Rev Moses Somes Breach
11	14 April 1875	Thomas Julian Matilda Foreman	Thomas Julian Matilda Foreman 💍 1875/1120 Thomas Allen Harriet Eliza Foreman 💍 1875/1651	Son of Samuel White Julian Daughter of Richard White Foreman	Farmer	20 2/12 18 9/12	Oakura Tataraimaka District	8 years 8 years	In the residence of Richard White Foreman, Tataraimaka District	75/168	Samuel White Julian, Father; Richard White Foreman, Father	14 April 1875	The Rev Henry Handley Brown
12	19 April 1875	William Thomas Northcott Emily Eliza Rogers	William Thomas Northcott Emily Eliza Rogers 💍 1875/964	Bachelor Daughter of William Rogers	Shoemaker	30 20	Hua Village Bell District	5 years 11 years	In the residence of Mr William Rogers, Bell District	75/1983	William Rogers, Father	19 April 1875	The Rev John Dumbell
13	20 April 1875	Richard Dingle Hannah Black	Richard Dingh Hannah Black 💍 1875/819	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	New Plymouth Tikorangi District	1 month 3 months	In the School House, Tikorangi District	75/944		20 April 1875	The Rev William Kirk
14	30 April 1875	William Bleasel Marion Haliday	William Bleasel Marion Haliday 💍 1875/928	Bachelor Spinster	A.C. Force Constable Domestic Servant	22 7/12 21	Pukearuhe New Plymouth	18 months 1 month	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Devon Street, New Plymouth	75/1053		30 April 1875	The Rev John Lampila
15	10 May 1875	Berkeley Bunbury Emma Jane Scammell	Berkeley Bunbury Emma Jane Scammell 💍 1875/965	Bachelor Daughter of the late Samuel Scammell	Storekeeper	34 19 8/12	New Plymouth New Plymouth	3 years 19 8/12	In the residence of Mrs Anne Scammell Widow, Barrett Street, New Plymouth	75/984	Anne Scammell, Mother	10 May 1875	The Rev John Dumbell

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).