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 360

District of Wellington 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
264	4 December 1876	David Scott Mary Louisa Naybittle	David Scott Mary Louisa Haybittle 💍 1876/2578	Bachelor Spinster	Inspector of Works	33 20	Wellington Wellington	7 years 20 years	House of Richard B. Naybittle, Ingestre St, Wellington	76/764	Richard B. Naybittle, father	4 December 1876	Rev. John Moir
265	5 December 1876	Alfred William James Catherine Rebecca Jane Tollis	Alfred William Garner Catherine Rebecca Jane Tollens 💍 1876/2841	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	25 16	Wellington Wellington	2 years 10 years	House of Mrs Tollis, Manners Steps, Wellington	76/2890	James Tollis, father	5 December 1876	Rev. W. H. West
266	6 December 1876	Samuel Read Sarah Jane Furness	Samuel Read Sarah Jane Furness 💍 1876/2686	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 18	Wellington Wellington	2 years 18 years	Wesleyan Church, Manners Street, Wellington	76/456	Smith Furness, father	6 December 1876	Rev. A. Reid
267	6 December 1876	Luther Halliwell Mary Jane Loornath	Luther Halliwell Mary Jane Toomath 💍 1876/3099	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 19	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3 years	Cathedral of St Pauls, Mulgrave Street, Wellington	76/3133	Edward Loornath, father	6 December 1876	Rev. B. W. Harvey
268	9 December 1876	Edward Scott Minnie Naybittle	Edward Scott Minnie Hamilton Carling 💍 1876/2219	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 17	Wellington Wellington	21 years 20 months	House of Mrs Carling, Courtenay Place, Wellington	76/338	Margaret Carling, brother	9 December 1876	Rev. C. S. Ogg
269	11 December 1876	George Everiss Helen Duncan	George Everiss Helen Duncan 💍 1876/3017	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	34 20	Wellington Porirua	2 months 10 years	House of Charles Duncan, Porirua	76/3044	Charles Duncan, father	11 December 1876	Rev. Jas Paterson
270	13 December 1876	Christian Richard Jordan Janet Wemyss	Christian Richard Jordan Janet Wemyss 💍 1876/2582	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 16	Wellington Johnsonville	6 days 14 months	Church of England, Johnsonville	76/3048	John Wemyss, father	13 December 1876	Rev. S. A. Newth

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).