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 549

District of [illegible] 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
30	9 October 1876	John Williams Mary I Sharman Knight	John Williams Mary Johanna McKnight 💍 1876/2652	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	30 years 24 years	Marsden Marsden	4 years 9 months	Albion Hotel, Greymouth	76/2704		9 October 1876	Jean Baptiste Rolland, R.C.
31	10 October 1876	Edwin Counce Bridget Walsh	Edward Coombe Bridget Walsh 💍 1876/2661	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	28 years 19 years	Rutherglen Rutherglen	7 years 18 months	Roman Catholic Church, Greymouth	76/2707	Thomas Walsh, Father	October 18, 1876	Rev. J. Mc Enyer
32	20 October 1876	William Sherman Mary Crisp	William Sherman Mary Crisp 💍 1876/2663	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	27 years 26 years	Nelson Creek Nelson Creek	5 years 18 months	Private house of Mrs Rowe, Arney Street, Greymouth	76/2709		20 October 1876	Rev. Mr Douglas
33	25 October 1876	Robert Thomson Julia Phelan	Robert Thomson Julia Phelan 💍 1876/2452	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	30 years 35 years	Greymouth Greymouth	11 days 11 days	Registrar's Office, Greymouth	76/2708		25 October 1876	Harry Kenrick, Registrar
34	7 November 1876	George Crawford Mary Turner	Edwin George Philpott Maria Turner 💍 1876/384	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	40 years 27 years	Saltwater Creek Arnold Bridge, Stillwater Creek	6 years 6 months	Private house of G. Crawford	76/2705		7 November 1876	Jean Baptiste Rolland, R.C.
35	10 November 1876	Thomas Clark Bridget Halloran	Thomas Clark Bridget O'Halloran 💍 1876/2660	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Barmaid	32 years 24 years	Kumara Maori Creek	3 weeks 2 years	Faulkner's Hotel, Maori Creek	76/2706		10 November 1876	Jean Baptiste Rolland, R.C.
36	15 November 1876	James Wilson Sophia Rabbeth	James Wilson Sophia Rabbeth 💍 1876/2664	Widower Spinster	Insurance Agent None	46 years 59 years	Greymouth Greymouth	9 years 9 months	Private house of James Wilson, Alexander Street, Greymouth	76/2710		15 November 1876	Rev. A. R. F. Douglas

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).