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 187

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 December 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
721	9 October 1877	John Gardiner Murray Ellen Dixon	John Gardiner Murray Ellen Dixon 💍 1877/2339	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	36 20	Thames Thames	8 years 2 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Samuel Dickey, Coromandel, Thames	77/2331	Ann Dixon, the mother	9 October 1877	Rev. S. J. Neill
722	12 October 1877	Charles Trammell Ellen Morton	Charles Manuell Ellen Morton 💍 1877/2335	Bachelor Spinster	Miner [illegible]	25 17	Thames Waitangina	1½ years 8 years	Wesleyan Church, Willoughby St, Thames	77/2332	Samuel Morton, "The Father"	13 October 1877	Rev. R. S. Bunn
723	13 October 1877	William Henry Bagnall Anna Louisa Jones	William Henry Bagnall Anne Louisa Honiss 💍 1877/2368	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor [illegible]	32 18	Cyrna Thames	8 years 9 years	St. George's Church	77/2338	Edward Hopkins "The Father"	13 October 1877	Rev. A. Lush
724	15 October 1877	Lawrence Leussen Annie Wallnutt	Laurence Cussen Annie Wallnutt 💍 1877/2332	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor [illegible]	24 21	Auckland Thames	7 years 9 years	St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church, Wellington St. Thames	77/2325 Auckland	Charles Wallnutt "The Father"	15 October 1877	Rev. J. O'Shaughnessy
725	16 October 1877	James Alexander McWilliams Isabella Purcell	James Alexander McWilliams Isabella Purcell 💍 1877/2340	Bachelor Spinster	Miner [illegible]	23 23	Thames Thames	9 years 6 years	At the dwelling house occupied by Henry Moore, Bird in Hand Hill, Karaka	77/2532	[illegible]	16 October 1877	Rev. S. J. Neill
726	23 October 1877	Alexander Laird Ellen Leurtis	Alexander Laird Ellen Curtis 💍 1877/2341	Widower Spinster	Miner [illegible]	45 17	Thames Thames	4 months 4 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Rev. S. Neill, Rolleston Street, Thames	77/2333	Amelia Leurtis, "the mother"	23 October 1877	Rev. S. J. Neill
727	27 October 1877	Richard Henry Polkinghorne Sarah Louisa Vowels	Richard Henry Polkinghorn Sarah Louisa Vowels 💍 1877/2336	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	24 20	Thames Thames	7 days 9 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Thomas Vowels, Bella St. Thames	77/2329	Thomas Vowels "the Father"	27 October 1877	Rev. R. S. Bunn

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).