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 343

District of Waipukurau Quarter ending 31 March 1875 Registrar William Rathbone

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

116

13 January 1875

James Crouch Taylor
Lucy Taylor

James Croude Taylor
Lucy Taylor
💍 1875/88

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Nil

29
21

Te Aute
Te Aute

6 years
18 months

In the Church at Te Aute

75/168

13 January 1875

Rev. John Cargill, United

No	116
Date of Notice	13 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Crouch Taylor	Lucy Taylor
BDM Match (95%)	James Croude Taylor	Lucy Taylor
	💍 1875/88
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Nil
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Te Aute	Te Aute
Length of Residence	6 years	18 months
Marriage Place	In the Church at Te Aute
Folio	75/168
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Cargill, United

117

30 January 1875

Adolf Brown
Anna Hemmingsen

Adolf Breur
Anna Hemmingsen
💍 1875/89

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic

22
20

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

6 months
6 months

In the Schoolroom, Waipukurau

75/169

J. Hemmingsen, father

30 January 1875

Rev. John Cargill, United

No	117
Date of Notice	30 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Adolf Brown	Anna Hemmingsen
BDM Match (86%)	Adolf Breur	Anna Hemmingsen
	💍 1875/89
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	In the Schoolroom, Waipukurau
Folio	75/169
Consent	J. Hemmingsen, father
Date of Certificate	30 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Cargill, United

118

1 February 1875

William McKinley
Mary Evans

William McKinley
Mary Evans
💍 1875/91

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic

26
22

Waipukurau
Waipawa

1 week
6 months

In the United Methodist Free Church, Waipawa

75/170

1 February 1875

Rev. Joseph White, United

No	118
Date of Notice	1 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William McKinley	Mary Evans
	💍 1875/91
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipawa
Length of Residence	1 week	6 months
Marriage Place	In the United Methodist Free Church, Waipawa
Folio	75/170
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph White, United

119

22 February 1875

Donald Mathieson Gollan
Harriet Bourne

Donald Mathison Gollan
Hariett Bourne
💍 1875/92

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepfarmer
Nil

32
22

Mangatarata
Tamumu

19 years
18 months

In the house of John McKenzie, Tamumu

75/171

22 February 1875

Rev. Joseph White, United

No	119
Date of Notice	22 February 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Mathieson Gollan	Harriet Bourne
BDM Match (91%)	Donald Mathison Gollan	Hariett Bourne
	💍 1875/92
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepfarmer	Nil
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Mangatarata	Tamumu
Length of Residence	19 years	18 months
Marriage Place	In the house of John McKenzie, Tamumu
Folio	75/171
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph White, United

120

9 March 1875

Samuel Dew
Martha Burgess

Samuel Dew Dew
Martha Burgess
💍 1875/93

Bachelor
Spinster

Policeman
Nil

22
19

Waipawa
Hampden

6 months
10 years

In the house of Thomas Burgess, Hampden

75/172

Thomas Burgess, father

9 March 1875

Rev. Joseph White, United

No	120
Date of Notice	9 March 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Dew	Martha Burgess
BDM Match (86%)	Samuel Dew Dew	Martha Burgess
	💍 1875/93
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Policeman	Nil
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Hampden
Length of Residence	6 months	10 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Thomas Burgess, Hampden
Folio	75/172
Consent	Thomas Burgess, father
Date of Certificate	9 March 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Joseph White, United

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).