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 183

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar Edward Henry Sower

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
706	2 July 1877	Charles Broucher Maria Dance	Charles Croucher Maria Dance 💍 1877/1620	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	50 years 47 years	Waitangirua Thames	4 years 4 years	In dwelling house occupied by Mrs Martha Jane Mackie Street, Thames	77/1546		2 July 1877	Revd R. Laishley
707	9 July 1877	Martin Henry Payne Jane Brewer	Martin Henry Payne Jane Brewer 💍 1877/1907	Widower Spinster	Physician	35 years 33 years	Thames Ohinunga	3 years 18 years	St Peter's Church Ohinunga	77/1562		13 July 1877	Revd A.R. Tomlinson
708	9 July 1877	Richard Jynkin Caroline Viall	Richard Jenkins Caroline Viall 💍 1877/1617	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Milliner	35 years 24 years	Thames Thames	6 years 7 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Samuel Viall, Graham Road, Thames	77/1543		9 July 1877	Revd P.S. Bunn
709	16 July 1877	William Dorindells Sarah McInninny	William Swindells Sarah McInneny 💍 1877/1598	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Laundress	47 years 21 years	Thames Thames	8 years 18 months	St Francis' Roman Catholic Church Thames	77/1540		16 July 1877	Revd S. Habragnon
710	17 July 1877	Peter Fisher Elizabeth Margaret Gollop	Peter Fisher Elizabeth Margaret Gollop 💍 1877/1616	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 years 19 years	Waitangirua Karaka	8 years 4 years	In the dwelling house occupied by William Gollop, Karaka Bell, Thames	77/1542	William Gollop, Father	17 July 1877	Revd J.I. Fenton
711	23 July 1877	Martin Luther Holdsworth Sarah Eliza Cox	Martin Luther Holdsworth Sarah Eliza Cox 💍 1877/1618	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 years 22 years	Karano Waitangirua	8 years 18 months	In the Wesleyan Chapel, Willoughby Street, Thames	77/1544		23 July 1877	Revd P.S. Bunn
712	4 August 1877	John Daniel Elizabeth Thomas	John Daniels Elizabeth Thomas 💍 1877/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	30 years 20 years	Thames Karaka	5 years 18 months	St George's Church Thames	77/1556		4 August 1877	Revd G. Cusk

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).