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 253

District of New Plymouth Quarter ending 30 June 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
17	3 April 1876	John Lock Catherine Jones	John Cock Catherine Jones 💍 1876/713	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Domestic Servant	21 22	New Plymouth New Plymouth	21 years 14 years	Te Henui Episcopal Church	76/763		18 April 1876	Venerable Archdeacon Henry Govett, CofE
18	7 April 1876	John Arthur Mace Donah Penwarden	John Airth Mace Dinah Penwarden 💍 1876/937	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 1/2 21	Hairoka Omata	14 months 6 years	In the residence of Mr Herbert Ford, Courtenay Street, New Plymouth	76/1080		18 April 1876	John Dumbell, Prim
19	10 April 1876	Henry Rattenbury Emma Louisa Sampson	Henry Rattenbury Emma Louisa Sampson 💍 1876/712	Bachelor	Farmer	36 20	Waitara West Hua District	4 months 13 years	Episcopal Church	76/772	Charles Sampson, the Father	18 April 1876	Venerable Archdeacon Henry Govett, CofE
20	18 April 1876	Jonathan Charles Adams Elizabeth Lye	Jonathan Charles Adams Elizabeth Lye 💍 1876/711	Bachelor	Schoolmaster	28 19	New Plymouth New Plymouth	2 years 19 years	St Mary's Church, New Plymouth	76/771	William Lye, the Father	18 April 1876	Venerable Archdeacon Henry Govett, CofE
21	19 April 1876	John Curd Bridget Mounteashel	John Curd Bridget Mountcashel 💍 1876/715	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 23	New Plymouth New Plymouth	19 months 11 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Devon Street, New Plymouth	76/775		19 April 1876	John Lampila, RC
22	1 May 1876	Robert Hebby Mary Hills	Robert Webby Mary Willis 💍 1876/714	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	24 22 1/2	New Plymouth New Plymouth	5 days 5 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, New Plymouth	76/794		1 May 1876	Allan Shaw Douglas, Reg
23	9 May 1876	Stephen Adamson Sarah Jane Hells	Stephen Adamson Sarah Jane Wells 💍 1876/716	Bachelor	Cattle Dealer	24 20 1/2	New Plymouth New Plymouth	4 days 18 years	Wesleyan Chapel, New Plymouth		Rhoda Pitt, the Mother	9 May 1876	Francis H. Isitt, Wes
24	13 May 1876	Frederick James Fanny Matilda Haelson	Frederick James Fanny Matilda Shackson 💍 1876/939	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Avenue Road, Grey District Hospital Road, Fitzroy District	13 years 13 years	Residence of Mrs Mary Haelson, Fitzroy District	76/1082		13 May 1876	John Dumbell, Prim

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).