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 293

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
170	11 August 1875	Isaac George Price Emma Mary Bouts	Isaac George Price Emma Mary Bouts 💍 1875/1609	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	31 22	Wellington Wellington	12 months 2 years	House of Revd. C. S. Ogg, Woolcombe Street, Wellington	75/1411		11 August 1875	Revd. C. S. Ogg
171	14 August 1875	Henry Monaghan Sarah Trotter	Henry Monaghan Sarah Trotter 💍 1875/1607	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman	23 22	Karori Karori	20 years 9 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Hill Street, Wellington	75/1909		14 August 1875	Revd. Father Peter Henn
172	18 August 1875	John Fortescue Evelyn Wright Janet Porteous	John Fortesque Evelyn Wright Janet Porteous 💍 1875/3067	Widower Spinster	Farmer	48 27	Ohuro Wellington	21 years 3 months	House of Charles Purard, Cuba Street, Wellington	75/1964		18 August 1875	Revd. James Paterson
173	19 August 1875	John Falcon Reycroft Mary Ann Eades	John Calver Reycraft Mary Ann Eades 💍 1875/1580	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 16	Wellington The Lower Hutt	3 months 16 years	House of Henry Bolton, Waiwetu	75/1905	Henry Eades, father	19 August 1875	Revd. John B. Richardson
174	20 August 1875	Montague Charles Lamb Pyne Fanny Clayton	Montagu Charles Lamb Pym Fanny Clayton 💍 1875/1830	Bachelor Spinster		24 23	Wellington Wellington	1 day About 4 years	Cathedral of St. Pauls, Thorndon	75/1909		20 August 1875	Revd. Wm. S. G. Bluett
175	20 August 1875	Walter Augustus Nicholas Emma Elizabeth Moore	Walter Augustus Nicholson Emma Elizabeth Moore 💍 1875/1611	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 17	Wellington Wellington	12 months 2 years	House of Frederick Alfred Moore, Sydney Street, Wellington	75/1713	Frederick Alfred Moore, father	20 August 1875	Revd. C. S. Ogg.
176	21 August 1875	John Procter Hyder Florence formerly Theobald	John Proctor Hydes Florence Liardet 💍 1875/1811	Widower Widow	Comedian Comedienne	48 28	Wellington Wellington	8 months 2 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	75/1864		21 August 1875	Registrar of Marriages, Wellington
177	21 August 1875	George Richard Darby Eliza Baker	George Richard Saxby Eliza Baker 💍 1875/1578	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 20	Wellington Wellington	14 months 20 years	House of George Baker, Taranaki Street	75/1714		21 August 1875	None issued

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).