Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 227

District of Turanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1876

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
121	4 January 1876	William Waite Georgina Latham	William Waite Georgeina Tatham 💍 1876/675 William Waite Julia Robottom 💍 1877/364	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	35 31	Gisborne Gisborne	1 week 1 week	At the residence of Mr W Morris at Gisborne	76/442		4 January 1876	Rev Edward Williams
122	12 January 1876	Henry Farr Charlotte Wood	Henry Tarr Charlotte Wood 💍 1876/676	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 19	Poverty Bay Ormond, Poverty Bay	29 years 12 months	At the Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne	76/443		26 January 1876	Rev E. Williams
123	9 February 1876	George Tambrell Jane Amelia Le Masurier	George Turnbull Jane Amelia Le Masurier 💍 1876/311	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Dressmaker	25 24	Gisborne Gisborne	17 months 12 months	At the Residence of the Rev W. H. Root, Gisborne	76/286		9 February 1876	Rev W. H. Root. Pres
124	28 February 1876	John Pyke Emily Rodgers	John Pyke Emily Rogers 💍 1876/677	Bachelor Spinster	Lineman None	24 23	Gisborne Gisborne	9 months 10 months	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne	76/444		28 February 1876	Rev Edward Williams
125	13 March 1876	Arthur Charles Harrison Kate Isobelle Hargrave	Arthur Charles Harrison Kate Isabell Hargrave 💍 1876/679	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer None	27 20	Whatatutu Ormond	3 years 4 years	The Residence of N. F. Hargrave at Ormond	76/445	William Frederick Hargrave, Father of the Bride	13 March 1876	Rev Edward Williams
126	15 March 1876	William Alfred Williams Annie Edith O'Brien	William Wilfrid Wilson Annie Edith O'Bieme 💍 1876/678	Widower Spinster	Solicitor	50 20	Gisborne Gisborne	2 1/2 years 5 weeks	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne	76/445	Ellen O'Brien, Mother of bride	15 March 1876	Rev Edward Williams
127	16 March 1876	Thomas Finneane Mary Jane Byrne	Thomas Finucane Mary Jane Byrne 💍 1876/3207	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 17	Makaraka Gisborne	12 years 12 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne	76/3152	Richard Byrne, Father of Bride	16 March 1876	The Registrar of Marriages at Gisborne
128	23 March 1876	Henry Williams Sarah Brown	Henry Williams Sarah Brown 💍 1876/312	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger None	29 23	Waएरanga a hika Gisborne	6 months 7 months	At the residence of Mr Robert Cooper, Gisborne	76/289		23 March 1876	Rev W. H. Root. Pres

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).