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 0289

District of Rangitikei 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
144	7 April 1876	Bernhard Ludwig Junr. Guster Augusta Ernestine Gudopp		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 years 18 years	Marton Marton	15 years 18 months	Residence of Mr H. Guster, Marton	76/996	Willhelm Gudopp, father	7 April 1876	Rev. William Stewart, Pres
145	21 April 1876	John Woods Elizabeth Moore	John Woods Elizabeth Moore 💍 1876/944	Widower Widow	Bootmaker	48 years 34 years	Bulls Bulls	5 years 1 month	Residence of J. Moore, Bulls	76/1014		21 April 1876	Rev. Chas. H. Kirk, R.C.
146	29 April 1876	George Jessop Thirza Stanway	George Jessup Thirza Stanway 💍 1876/852	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	23 years 24 years	Makakapo Makakapo	12 months 12 months	Office of Registrar, Marton	76/992		29 April 1876	The Registrar of Marriages, Marton
147	17 May 1876	John Ryan Mary Broadres	John Ryan Mary Broddres 💍 1876/853	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	40 years 21 years	Rangitikei Rangitikei	7 years 12 months	Residence of Mrs. John Connolly, Rangitikei	76/993		17 May 1876	Rev. C. H. Kirk
148	14 June 1876	Samuel Kithill Catherine Louden	Samuel Kithill Catherine London 💍 1876/832	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	38 years 40 years	Marton Marton	16 months 4 months	Office of Registrar, Marton	76/994		14 June 1876	The Registrar of Marriages, Marton
149	11 June 1876	Samuel Thomas Cox Emma Thoms	Samuel Thomas Cox Emma Thoms 💍 1876/1329	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 19 years	Crofton Pourewa	2 years 19 years	Residence of Mr. C. Thoms, Pourewa	76/1300	Charles Thoms, father	16 June 1876	Rev. S. Garlick, Pres
150	27 June 1876	Frederick Brice Faith Hammond	Frederick Brice Faith Hammond 💍 1876/1781	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 23 years	Rangitikei Rangitikei	2 years 20 years	Pukiki Church, New Wanganui	76/1154		27 June 1876	Rev. B. K. Taylor, CofE
151	29 June 1876	Richard Whale Mary Ann Frederick	Richard Whale Mary Ann Fredrick 💍 1876/833	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 years 19 years	Rangitikei Rangitikei	22 years 13 years	Residence of Mr. Joseph Frederick	76/995	Joseph Frederick, father	29 June 1876	Rev. William Stewart, Pres

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).