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 318

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
8	13 January 1876	Joseph Snow Louisa Mary Donnelly	Joseph Snow Louisa Mary Donnelly 💍 1876/230	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer	25 19	Wellington Wellington	3 years 9 years	House of William Hunter, Molesworth Street, Wellington	76/69	Consent of Margaret Hodgins formerly Donnelly, mother	18 January 1876	Rev. Arthur Petit Jean, RC
9	14 January 1876	William Pascoe Frances Knight	William Guscoign Beard Frances Knight 💍 1876/484	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	25 23	Wellington Wellington	[illegible] about 6 years	St Paul's Cathedral, Molesworth Street	76/334		14 January 1876	Rev. Bishop, Wellington, CofE
10	14 January 1876	George Whitsture Susan McNamara	George Wiltshire Suzana McNamara 💍 1876/469	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor Housemaid	27 26	Wellington Wellington	[illegible] 9 months	Roman Catholic Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington	76/343		17 January 1876	Very Rev. J. J. P. O'Reilly, RC
11	14 January 1876	Charles Rous Marten Emily Jane Nicholson	Charles Rous Martin Emily Jane Hickson 💍 1876/461	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	33 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 24 years	Church of St Peter, Willis Street	76/327		17 January 1876	Reverend Archibald Stock, CofE
12	18 January 1876	Hans Petersen Margaret Baillie	Hans Peterson Margaret Baillie 💍 1876/224	Bachelor Spinster	Boatbuilder	32 33	Masterton, but now residing in Wellington Wellington	3 days 14 days	House of Mr. J. Paterson, The Terrace, Wellington	76/61		18 January 1876	Rev. J. Paterson, Pres
13	20 January 1876	William Henry Skersey Matilda Baker	William Henry Sneesby Matilda Baker 💍 1876/462	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Servant	24 23	Wellington Wellington	2 years [illegible]	Cathedral of St Paul's, Mulgrave Street	76/336		20 January 1876	Rev. B. W. Harvey, CofE
14	20 January 1876	Francis Whiteman Mary Ann Greenwood	Francis Whiteman Mary Ann Greenwood 💍 1876/234	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Hutt, Wairarapa Valley Upper Hutt	10 years 16 years	Church of England, Upper Hutt	76/40	Consent of Ellen Greenwood, [illegible]	20 January 1876	Rev. Charles A. J. Nicholls, CofE
15	21 January 1876	John Hugh Cosgrove Katherine Isobel Cruickshank		Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	24 21	Wellington Harbour Wadesdown	10 days 10 days	Cathedral of St Paul's, Mulgrave Street, Wellington	76/335		21 January 1876	Rev. B. W. Harvey, CofE

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).