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 225

District of Cambridge Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar Bernard C Beale

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
4	20 April 1877	Arthur Gellard Susan Knox	Arthur Gillard Susanna Knox 💍 1877/936	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	22 21	Hamilton Hamilton	1 year 12 years	at the house of John Knox, Hamilton	77/831	20 April 1877	Revd S. Y. Neill
10	23 April 1877	George Little Fanny Johnson	George Little Fanny Johnson 💍 1877/935	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	40 29	Newcastle Newcastle	10 years 4 months	at the Episcopalian Church, Hopuhopu	77/830	23 April 1877	Revd B. Y. Ashwell
11	28 April 1877	Henry Newcombe Regina Heeley	Henry Newcombe Kezia Keily 💍 1877/1484	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Dressmaker	30 28	Cambridge Cambridge	4 years 2 years	Episcopalian Church at Cambridge	77/434	28 April 1877	Revd W. Calder
12	05 May 1877	Michael Roach Eliza Kennedy	Michael Roche Eliza Kennedy 💍 1877/937	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	29 21	Hamilton Hamilton	3 years 4 months	Roman Catholic Chapel at Hamilton	77/832	05 May 1877	Revd J. Golden
13	06 May 1877	William Perreal Elizabeth Stewart	William Pevreal Elizabeth Stewart 💍 1877/1489	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 22	Hamilton Hamilton	12 years 6 months	at the Office of the Registrar, Hamilton	77/438	06 May 1877	B C Beale, Registrar
14	23 May 1877	James Taylor Dinah Jane Lyndo	James Taylor Dinah Jane Lynds 💍 1877/1488	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	36 20	Hamilton Hamilton	4 years 3 days	at the house of James Taylor, Hamilton	77/437	23 May 1877	Revd H S Davis
15	21 June 1877	Robert Harries Anna Mary Bloomfield	Robert Harris Anna Mary Bloomfield 💍 1877/3163	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 21	Hamilton Hamilton	13 years 4 months	Episcopalian Church at Newcastle	77/435	21 June 1877	Revd W. Calder
16	25 June 1877	James Lockie Grace Greenshield Gall	James Lockie Grace Greenshields Gall 💍 1877/1483	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 16	Steamer "Oregon", Onehunga Rangiriri	6 months 6 years	Episcopalian Church at Newcastle	77/433	25 June 1877	Revd W. Calder
17	30 June 1877	George Thomas Norris Suzanna Kingdon	George Thomas Norris Susannah Kingdon 💍 1877/1606	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Taotaozoa Cambridge	6 years 6 years	The house of Walter Cudworth, Cambridge	77/556	30 June 1877	Revd G. Smith

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).