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 283

District of Wanganui South Quarter ending 31 December 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
55	4 October 1876	George Clout Annie Quinlivan	George Clout Annie Quinlivan 💍 1876/2579	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 years 18 years	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Wanganui	76/12618	Thomas Quinlivan, Father	4 October 1876	Revd Father Kirk
56	7 October 1876	William Henry Blythe Alice Allarr	William Henry Blythe Alice Marr 💍 1876/2557	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	34 years 19 years	Wanganui Wanganui	5 years 19 years	Residence of Mrs Blythe, Wanganui	76/12622	Bridget Allarr, Mother	7 October 1876	Revd Mr. Bowie
57	9 October 1876	William James Davey Anne Reynolds	William J Davey Ann Reynolds 💍 1876/2554	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 35 years	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	76/12620		9 October 1876	Revd Mr. Bowie
58	12 October 1876	George Alfred Hurley Elizabeth Cleaderch	George A Hurley Elizabeth Chadwick 💍 1876/2553	Bachelor Spinster	Produce Merchant	30 years [illegible]2 years	Wanganui Wanganui	20 years 6 years	Residence of J. Hurley, Wanganui	76/12619	John Hurley, Father	12 October 1876	Revd Mr. Bowie
59	14 October 1876	Joseph Henry Edbutt Elizabeth Ellen Brand	Joseph Henry Edlin Elizabeth Ellen Beard 💍 1876/2556	Bachelor Spinster	Waggoner	26 years 32 years	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	Mr Couchie's Boardinghouse, Wanganui	76/12621		14 October 1876	Revd Mr. Bowie
60	30 October 1876	Charles Richard Campbell Agnes Aurelia Wakeland	Charles Richard Campbell Agnes Amelia Wakelin 💍 1876/2558	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 years 22 years	Wanganui Wanganui	26 years 3 years	Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	76/12623		30 October 1876	Revd Mr. Bowie
61	3 November 1876	James Albert Leydon Ellen Malone	James Albert Leydon Ellen Theresa Malone 💍 1876/2587	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	23 years 19 years	Wanganui Wanganui	11 months 1 year	Catholic Chapel, Wanganui	76/12629	John Malone, Father	3 November 1876	Revd Father Kirk
62	4 November 1876	William Barnes Robinson Agnes Armstrong	William Barnes Robinson Agnes Armstrong 💍 1876/2999	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	21 years 21 years	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Wanganui	76/3080		4 November 1876	Revd Mr. Ross
63	11 November 1876	James Tooney Mary Mahoney	James Mooney Mary Mahoney 💍 1876/19	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 years 18 years	Wanganui Wanganui	11 months 18 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Wanganui	76/12630	Michael Mahoney	11 November 1876	Revd Father Kirk

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).