Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 177

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar Edward Henry Power

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
680	4 January 1877	John Rogers Sarah Montague	John Rogers Sarah Montague 💍 1877/214	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	31 years 30 years	Thames Thames	1 year 1 year	St Francis Roman Catholic Church Thames			24 January 1877	Rev. S. Chastagnon
681	18 January 1877	Edward Wm Read Amaria Brame	Edward McLeod Maria Brame 💍 1877/213	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic	23 years 21 years	Thames Thames	8 years 8 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Wm. John MacDonald, Beach Road Thames			18 January 1877	Rev. R. Soichley
682	20 January 1877	Robert Smith Emma Nairn nee Kent	Robert Smith Emma Nairn 💍 1877/217	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	35 years 38 years	Thames Thames	8 years 2 years	In the dwelling house occupied by W. J. Wright, Pollen St. Thames			22 January 1877	Rev. James Hill
683	2 February 1877	George Baragwanath Barker Mary Ann Gibson nee Jolly	Gee Sargent Barker Mary Ann Gibson 💍 1877/218	Widower Widow	Carpenter Domestic	44 years 35 years	Waitangiuna Waitangiuna	8 years 8 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Thames			22 February 1877	E. H. Power
684	25 March 1877	William Walter Otter Sarah Ann Ross	William Walton Otter Sarah Ann Ross 💍 1877/212 William Briggs Sarah Ann Ross 💍 1877/2759	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	23 years 19 years	Karaka Eureka	8 years 8 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Wm. Otter, Karaka		Sarah Ross, mother	21 March 1877	Rev. J. Lush
685	26 March 1877	Alfred George Smith Margaret Buchanan formerly Hinley nee Dolly	Alfred George Smith Margaret Peckham 💍 1877/216	Bachelor Widow	Sawyer Domestic	36 years 36 years	Thames Thames	10 years 1 year	In the dwelling house occupied by William Ashby, Augusta St. Thames			26 March 1877	Rev. R. S. Bunn
686	27 March 1877	William Paul Virginia Le Jury	William Paul Virginie Lefney 💍 1877/1401	Bachelor Spinster	Millman Domestic	21 years 20 years	Thames Waitangiuna	8 years 10 months	St Francis Roman Catholic Church Thames	77/1351			S. Chastagnon

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).