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 229

District of Wanganui 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
18	18 April 1875	William Erskine Annie Yenan	William Erskire Annie Tyron 💍 1875/1327 William Cook Annie Reid 💍 1875/849	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic servant	24 years 24	Wanganui Wanganui	8 years 2 years	Christchurch	75/1368		12 April 1875	Rev. W. Tudor
19	19 April 1875	Harry Orlando Williams Margaret Simmons	Harry Orlando Williams Margaret Timmins 💍 1875/284	Widower Spinster	Cattle dealer	Full age Full age	Wanganui Wanganui	12 years 3 years	Putiki	75/318		14 April 1875	Rev. B. Taylor
20	20 April 1875	Thomas Alphonsus Maloney Mary Ann Nathan	Thomas Alphonous William Mahoney Mary Ann Nathan 💍 1875/1266 Thomas James Bush Mary Ann Nathan 💍 1876/415	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 years 21 years	Wanganui Wanganui	22 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic chapel Wanganui	75/1307		15 April 1875	Revd Father Kirk
21	21 April 1875	Joseph Handley Charlotte Walker	Joseph Southern Handley Charlotte Walker 💍 1875/362	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 years 19	Wanganui Wanganui	23 years 18 years	Church of England chapel at Putiki Wanganui	75/319	John Walker, Father	17 April 1875	Revd B. Taylor
22	22 April 1875	Thomas Brogan Bridget Callopy	Thomas Brogan Bridget Collopy 💍 1875/1267	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 20 years	Wanganui Putiki	2 years 20 years	Roman Catholic chapel at Wanganui	75/1308	William Callopy, Father	21 April 1875	Revd Father Kirk
23	23 April 1875	John Lawson Joanna Jobin	John Lawson Johanne Tobin 💍 1875/1268	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 years 19 years	Wanganui Bell street	7 months 4 months	Roman Catholic chapel Wanganui	75/1309	Declaration made that no person is in the Colony authorized to give consent to the marriage of Joanna Jobin	26 April 1875	Revd Father Kirk
24	24 May 1875	Robert Balmain Taylor Mary Jane Mitchell	Robert Balmain Taylor Mary Jane Mitchell 💍 1875/929	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 years 21 years	Cresswell near Wanganui Wanganui	3 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church Wanganui	75/1041		6 May 1875	Revd Mr Elmslie
25	25 May 1875	James Hudson Catherine Williamson	James Hudson Williamson Catherine Nicholson 💍 1875/1328 James Hudson Williamson Catherine Nicholson 💍 1875/1330	Bachelor Widow	Clerk in the N.Z. Civil Service	26 years 20 years	Wanganui late of Wellington Wanganui Wellington	8 days 7 months	Christchurch Victoria Avenue Wanganui	75/1369		13 May 1875	Revd Thomas Lloyd Tudor
26	26 May 1875	John Dillon Fanny Tricker	John Dillon Fanny Fricker 💍 1875/1332	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	26 years 24 years	Wanganui Wanganui	2 months 7 months	Mr. James Dillon's private residence Park Place Wanganui	75/1398		31 May 1875	Revd L. L. Tudor John Elmslie

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).