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 281

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 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
39	3 July 1876	Edward Billingshurst Sarah Speerless	Edward Billingshurst Sarah Peerless 💍 1876/2505	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	31 years 34 years	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months at residence 18 months	Maxwelltown	76/2290		3 July 1876	Revd R. J. Allsworth, Pres
40	13 July 1876	Joseph Chadwick Jane Grey	Joseph Chadwick Jane Greg 💍 1876/1782	Widower Widow	Auctioneer	49 years 40 years	Wanganui Wanganui	11 years at Kent House 10 years	Wanganui	76/1458		13 July 1876	Revd Wm. Davies, Wes
41	13 July 1876	Ernest Somerset Bowden Elizabeth Malvina Spacke	Ernest Somerset Bowden Elizabeth Malvina Greg 💍 1876/1783	Bachelor Spinster	Boot seller	22 years 22 years	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days at Kent House 11 years	Wanganui	76/1459		13 July 1876	Revd. Wm. Davies, Wes
42	14 July 1876	John Cobora Alice Pederson	John Coborn Alice Pederson 💍 1876/1777	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 years 28 years	Wanganui Wanganui	4 weeks at Registrar's Office 2 weeks	Wanganui	76/1454		14 July 1876	Ch. F. South, Regd
43	31 July 1876	James Anthony Mary Hogan	James Anthony Mary Hogan 💍 1876/1663	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	30 years 22 years	Maxwelltown Wanganui	18 months 3 years	Chapel, Wanganui	76/1464		31 July 1876	Revd Father Kirk, RC
44	1 August 1876	William Brown Margaret Bartholomew	William Brown Margaret Bartholomew 💍 1876/2512	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	43 years 33 years	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months 15 months	English Church, Wanganui	76/2248		1 August 1876	Revd T. L. Tudor, CofE
45	1 August 1876	Edward King Mary Ann Palmer	Edward King Mary Ann Palmer 💍 1876/1646	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	20 years 19 years	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	76/1461	George Palmer, Father	13 August 1876	Revd Wm. Davies, Wes
46	3 August 1876	Patrick Garvin Mary Welsh	Patrick Galvin Mary Walsh 💍 1876/1664	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 years 21 years	Wanganui Wanganui	12 months 10 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Wanganui	76/1465		3 August 1876	Revd Father Kirk, RC

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).