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 299

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
204	01 October 1875	Thomas Adam Kennedy Bella McKardy	Thomas Adam Kennedy Isabella McKardy 💍 1875/2134	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 26	of Taratahi but residing in Wellington Wellington	3 days 2 years	House of John Vinoroles, Sydney Street, Wellington	75/2288		01 October 1875	Father Petet Leav
205	01 October 1875	Frederick Theodore Menkew Edith Mary Boyce		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 21	of Taratahi but residing in Wellington of Taratahi but residing in Wellington	3 days 3 days	House of Mrs Mary Collins, Ingestre Street	75/2274		01 October 1875	Rev. J. Paterson
206	01 October 1875	Robert Wales Perrin Elizabeth Savage	Robert Hales Perrin Horn Elizabeth Savage 💍 1875/2269	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	32 25	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	Wesleyan Chapel, Molesworth Street	75/2255		01 October 1875	Rev. J. Y. Dewsbury
207	01 October 1875	Charles Coles Lilian Moore	Charles Coles Lilian Moon 💍 1875/2965	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	32 25	Wellington Karori	6 months 2 weeks	House of Revd. W. H. West, Molesworth Street, Wellington	75/2289		01 October 1875	Revd. W. H. West
208	01 October 1875	Charles Tursey Elizabeth Alexander	Charles Nursey Elizabeth Alexander 💍 1875/2124 Charles Creag Martha Alexander 💍 1875/2119	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	40 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Wellington	75/2299	No one in Colony	01 October 1875	Registrar of Marriages, Wellington
209	04 October 1875	Samuel Stuart Mason Frances Maria Bridland	Samuel Smart Mason Frances Maria Cridland 💍 1875/2250	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 28	Taita York Bay	21 years 4 years	Church of England, The Lower Hutt	75/2308		04 October 1875	Revd. H. Fancourt
210	04 October 1875	Samuel Pettit Atkins Anne Norah Kershaw	Samuel Atkins Annhora Kershaw 💍 1875/2121	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	23 20	Wellington Wellington	6 months 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Willis Street, Wellington	75/2276		04 October 1875	Revd. J. S. Paterson
211	05 October 1875	William Jessop Catherine Brigges	William Jessup Catherine Moser 💍 1875/2141 William Webber Catherine Brimnan 💍 1875/842 William Gordon Catherine McLaren 💍 1875/2316 William Hall Catherine Crossen 💍 1875/1737 William James Catherine Campbell 💍 1875/106 William Taylor Catherine Fallany 💍 1875/2091 William Lyon Catherine Garson 💍 1876/2781	Bachelor Widow	Clerk Formerly Servant	26 29	Wellington Wellington	18 months Some years	Roman Catholic Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington	75/2292		05 October 1875	Father M. Mc Kearney

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).