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 535

District of Oxford Quarter ending 30 June 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
61	13 April 1875	James Charles Mary Jane Nevellour	James Charles Mary Jane Trevilour 💍 1875/894	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 21	Moraki Downs Moraki Downs	14 years 4 years	Hiapoi	75/893		13 April 1875	H R Campbell
62	21 April 1875	James Hanagan Selina Milnes	James Flanagan Selina Milnes 💍 1875/809	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 35	Oxford Oxford	12 years 12 years	At Home	75/880		21 April 1875	Revd I McFarlane, United
63	22 April 1875	Peter Gilbertson Jessie Young	Peter Gilbertson Jessie Young 💍 1875/675	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	34 34	W. Oxford W. Oxford	18 months 4 years	At Home	75/802		22 April 1875	R Horton, Bah
64	30 April 1875	John Rossiter Rachel Ann Bowman	John Rossiter Rachel Bowman 💍 1875/1103	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	21 21	N. Oxford Malvern	1 year 8 years	St Marys, Oxford	75/1123		30 April 1875	Revd F Y Copie, Coff
65	3 May 1875	William Cooper Jane Filial Comyns	William Cooper Jane Julia Comyns 💍 1875/1064	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	W. Oxford W. Oxford	7 years 10 years	St Marys, Oxford	75/1126	Alfred Comyns, father	3 May 1875	Revd F Y Copie, Coff
66	31 May 1875	Edward Duffell Anna Cooper	Edward Duffull Annie Cooper 💍 1875/1075	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 28	W. Oxford W. Oxford	6 months 10 years	St Marys, Oxford	75/1127	George Cooper, father	31 May 1875	Revd F Y Copie, Coff
67	1 June 1875	Augustus Boyer Mary Chilliew	Augustus Bezer Mary Cheleyew 💍 1875/1104	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 25	Oxford Oxford	1 year 1 year	St Andrews, Oxford	75/1125		1 June 1875	Revd F Y Copie, Coff
68	11 June 1875	John Longbottom Fanny Cleaver	John Longbottom Fanny Cleaver 💍 1875/1144	Bachelor Spinster	Yeoman	29 21	Moraki Downs Moraki Downs	2 years 8 months	Cust Church	75/1017	John Cleaver, father	11 June 1875	Revd J Foulger, Coff
69	21 June 1875	Diedrich Zwiebruck Gustina Rodew	Diedrich Zwybruch Gustina Rader 💍 1875/810	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	44 48	Oxford Oxford	10 years 1 year	Registrar's Office	75/881		21 June 1875	John Foster, Registrar
70	28 June 1875	William Morjip Constance Johnson	William Morris Constance Johnson 💍 1875/1082	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 18	Oxford Oxford	9 years 10 years	St Andrews, Oxford	75/1228	Richd Johnson, father	28 June 1875	Revd F Y Copie, Coff
71	29 June 1875	John Hutchum Anna McHibbin	William John McCutcheon Anna McKibbin 💍 1875/1709	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 17	Moraki Downs Moraki Downs	1 year 1 year	At Home	75/1164	Hugh McHibbin, father	29 June 1875	Revd H G Gregory, Hd

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).