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 289

District of Wellington 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
133	23 June 1875	John James Boyd Ann Elizabeth Barker	John James Boyd Ann Elizabeth Barker 💍 1875/1568	Bachelor Spinster	Ships Carpenter Domestic Servant	23 18	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks 1 month	House of Henry Retter, Taranaki Street, Wellington	75/1694	William Barker, Father	22 July 1875	Rev. Henry Newbury
134	29 June 1875	Francis Thorley Jane Hows	Frank Thorley Jane Flaus 💍 1875/1838	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Servant	26 18	Port of Wellington Karori	1 day 6 months	House of Thomas Hows, Karori	75/1693	Thomas Hows, Father	3 July 1875	Rev. C. S. Ogg
140	1 July 1875	Walter Manning Eliza Jane Price	Walter Manning Eliza Jane Price 💍 1875/1835	Bachelor Spinster	Mate of Schooner Tallow Milliner	21 18	Port of Wellington Wellington	in Youth (locally for 2 years) 2 years	St. Peter's Church, Te Aro	75/1913	Wm. Price, Father	2 July 1875	Revd. Archdeacon Stock
141	2 July 1875	Alfred William Truman Elizabeth Ann Humphreys	Alfred William Trueman Elizabeth Ann Humphreys 💍 1875/1573	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic Servant	22 21	Wellington District of Wellington	22 years 12 months	House of Revd. Robert Ward, Sydney Street	75/1699	Revd. Robt. Ward, Friend	2 July 1875	Revd. Robt. Ward
142	6 July 1875	Thomas Hoggard Mary Harriet Martin	Thomas Hoggard Mary Harriet Martin 💍 1875/1839	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 21	Wellington Wellington	25 years 16 months	House of Mrs. Susan Hoggard, The Terrace	75/1894		6 July 1875	Revd. John Hear
143	6 July 1875	William Arthur Bradford Elizabeth McCrabie Ware	William Arthur Bradford Elizabeth McRobie Ware 💍 1875/1548	Bachelor Spinster	Doctor of Medicine	26 years 18 years	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	House of Revd. James Paterson, The Terrace	75/1622	After declaration of proper cause in Colony	6 July 1875	Revd. James Paterson
144	6 July 1875	Thomas Ballinger Ellen Jane Browne	Thomas Ballinger Ellen Jane Browne 💍 1875/1836	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 20	Wellington Wellington	10 years 10 years	St. Peter's Church, Te Aro	75/1914	George Browne, Father	6 July 1875	Revd. Archdeacon Stock
145	8 July 1875	Andrew Sinclair Dorally Moriet	Andrew Sinclair Dorothy Mowat 💍 1875/1608	Bachelor Spinster	Navy Domestic Servant	20 23	Wellington Wellington	2 years 12 years	House of Andrew Sinclair, Roxburgh Street	75/1710	After declaration of No person in Colony	8 July 1875	Rev. C. S. Ogg

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).