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 239

District of Rangitikei Quarter ending 30 September 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
126	1 July 1875	John William Green Louisa Stantiall	John William Grocer Louisa Stanhall 💍 1875/1652	Bachelor Spinster	Horse trainer	23 years 19 years	Westac Raujitikei	13 years 12 months	At the residence of Mr. John Jones	75/1829	Charles Stantiall, Guardian	1 July 1875	Revd. Arthur Taygood
127	5 July 1875	Henry Whale Priscilla Crabb	Henry Whale Priscilla Crabb 💍 1875/1934	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 18 years	Raujitikei Raugitikei	20 years 7 years	At the residence of Mr. Eli Crabb	75/1830	Eli Crabb, Father	5 July 1875	Revd. Thos. Hammond
128	12 July 1875	Robert James Kendrick Martha Coleman	Robert James Kendrick Martha Coleman 💍 1875/1710	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 years 19 years	Near Marton Raujitikei	11 years 4 years	St. Stephen's Church, Marton	75/1830	James Kendrick, father	12 July 1875	Revd. A. Taygood
129	13 August 1875	James Hall Victoria Ingram	James Hall Victoria Ingram 💍 1875/1714	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	24 years 25 years	Marton Marton	3 years 15 years	St. Stephen's Church, Marton	75/1832		13 August 1875	Revd. Arthur Taygood
130	17 August 1875	Frank Hector Christie Mary Ann Hardie		Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	30 years 19 years	Bulls Bulls	12 months 8 years	The residence of Mrs. Hardie, junior	75/2039	David M. Hardie, junior, Father	30 August 1875	Revd. Thomas Hammond
131	17 August 1875	Henry James Harbord Elizabeth Ingram	Henry James Harbolt Elizabeth Ingram 💍 1875/1713	Widower Spinster	Painter	31 years 20 years	Marton Marton	12 months 4 years	St. Stephen's Church, Marton	75/1831		17 August 1875	Revd. Arthur Taygood
132	27 August 1875	Rasmus Nielsen Anne Nielsen	Rasmus Nielsen Maren Lunley 💍 1875/262	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 years 19 years	Lutu totara Lutu totara	4 years 3 weeks	The residence of Major Marshall, Lutu Totara	75/1833	Heurick Nielsen, Father	27 August 1875	Revd. Arthur Taygood
133	30 August 1875	Charles Elliott Ann Woodroof	Charles Elliott Ann Woodnutt 💍 1875/1716	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	30 years 30 years	Bulls Bulls	12 months 3 months	The residence of Charles Elliott	75/1834		30 August 1875	Revd. Arthur Taygood
134	29 September 1875	William Summerfield Ellen Montgomery	William Summerfield Ellen Montgomery 💍 1875/1717 William Kerr Elizabeth Montgomery 💍 1876/800	Widower Widow	Labourer	42 years 37 years	Raujitikei Raujitikei	3 years 11 years	The residence of Mr. R. Saylor, Marton	75/1835		29 September 1875	Revd. Arthur Taygood

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).