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 547

District of Manawatu 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
356	19 October 1875	Thomas Davy Fanny Stokes	Thomas Davy Blackmore Fanny Stokes 💍 1875/3071	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 27	Manawatu Island Woodend	7 years 10 years	At the British Church at Woodend	75/2815		19 October 1875	Rev. W. Dudley, Copy
357	20 October 1875	George Gerry Maria Hoper	George Henry Batchelor Maria Sloper 💍 1875/2139	Bachelor Widow	Mechanic	41 30	Ohoka Ohoka	5 years 5 years	At the Registrar's Office at Manawatu	75/2840		20 October 1875	Charles Dudley, Copy
358	6 November 1875	Benjamin Clark Eunice Alice Smith	Benjamin Clark Smith Minnie Alice Smith 💍 1875/2341	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	27 20	Manawatu Manawatu	6 years 20 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel at Manawatu	75/2448	Robert Walker, Mother Smith, Father	6 November 1875	Rev. G. Bull, his
359	16 November 1875	Richard Baker Sarah Keehley	Richard Baker Sarah Keetley 💍 1875/2529	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 21	Manawatu Manawatu	18 years 17 years	At the Trust Church at Manawatu	75/2940		16 November 1875	Rev. G. R. Carlyon, Copy
360	15 December 1875	Charles Cathcart Ada Augusta Oriental Giles	Charles Holland Ada Augusta Oriental Giles 💍 1875/2883	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	19 20	Manawatu Island Manawatu Island	6 years 20 years	At the Church at Foxton	75/3136	Robert Holland, Father, Jameseld Giles, Father in law	15 December 1875	Rev. C. Merton, Copy
361	15 December 1875	Benjamin Giles Mary Ann Bailey	Benjamin Giles Mary Anne Bailey 💍 1875/2884	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Manawatu Island Foxton	20 years 13 years	At the Church at Foxton	75/3134	George Bailey, Father	15 December 1875	Rev. C. Merton, Copy
362	20 December 1875	Edward Cluther Louisa Alice Gee	Edward Clothier Louisa Alice Greig 💍 1875/2882	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 30	Foxton Foxton	1 year 8 years	At the District Church at Foxton	75/3135		20 December 1875	Rev. C. Merton, Copy

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).