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 879

District of East Taieri 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
26	5 July 1876	John Black Rosa Klass	John Black Rosa Klass 💍 1876/2173	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic Servant	29 years 18 years	Greytown Greytown	2 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church, East Taieri	76/2260	John Klass, Father	5 July 1876	Rev. Father Crowley
27	7 July 1876	John Smail Williamina Will Jaffray	John Smail Williamina Will Jaffray 💍 1876/2183	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 22 years	East Taieri Saddle Hill	10 years 22 years	House of William Jaffray, Saddle Hill	76/2252		7 July 1876	Rev. William Will
28	11 July 1876	Alexander Adam Christina McIvor	Alexander Adam Christina McIvor 💍 1876/2172	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Domestic Servant	35 years 21 years	Otokia Otokia	10 years 3 days	House of Farquhar McIvor, Otokia	76/2257		11 July 1876	Rev. John M. Allan
29	4 August 1876	Henry Palmer Margaret Campbell formerly McIntyre	Henry Palmer Margaret Campbell 💍 1876/2858	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	25 years 30 years	Otokia Otokia	25 years 1 year	House of Henry Palmer, Otokia	76/2883		4 August 1876	Rev. James Y. Paterson
30	10 August 1876	John Kirk Agnes Steven	John Kirk Agnes Henem 💍 1876/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Weaver	28 years 22 years	Dunedin Mosgiel	14 days 2 years	House of Mrs Steven, Mosgiel	76/2259		10 August 1876	Rev. John M. Sutherland
31	11 August 1876	Frederick John Tasker Christina Gibson Linn	Fredrick John Tasker Christina Gibson Linn 💍 1876/2195	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer General Servant	22 years 22 years	East Taieri East Taieri	6 months 2 months	House of James Tasker, Mosgiel	76/2258		11 August 1876	Rev. John M. Sutherland
32	16 August 1876	Peter Adamson Jane Sewell	Peter Adamson Jane Sewell 💍 1876/2190	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Weaver	24 years 21 years	Conley Place East Taieri	12 years 2 years	House of John Adamson, Conley Place	76/2253		16 August 1876	Rev. William Will
33	18 August 1876	James Harrison Margaret Thomson Mackie	James Harrison Margaret Thomson Mackie 💍 1876/2191	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Weaver	26 years 20 years	East Taieri Mosgiel	20 years 20 years	House of Thomas Mackie, Mosgiel	76/2254	Thomas Mackie, Father	18 August 1876	Rev. William Will
34	22 August 1876	Joseph Davidson Agnes Campbell	Joseph Davidson Agnes Campbell 💍 1876/2192	Widower Spinster	Coal Miner Domestic Servant	36 years 38 years	Saddle Hill East Taieri	1.5 years 6 weeks	House of William Campbell, East Taieri	76/2255		22 August 1876	Rev. William Will

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).