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 245

District of Patea Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar James Heich

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
60	2 January 1877	Martin Olson Karoline Macrin Stenberg	Martin Olson Caroline Maria Steinberg 💍 1877/240	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 28	Patea Patea	6 Months 3 Months	Registrar Office Patea	77/140	2 January 1877	James Heich Registrar
61	9 January 1877	John Adamson Annie Feich	John Adamson Annie Fish 💍 1877/238	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	21 21	Carlyle Carlyle	3 years 2 years	Mr Pakenham's house Carlyle	77/138	9 January 1877	Rev. John Lane
62	1 February 1877	Edward Collins Margaret Cunningham	Edward Collins Margaret Cunningham 💍 1877/243 William McLelland Margaret Cunningham 💍 1877/2211	Bachelor Widow	Barrier Domestic	37 27	Normanby Carlyle	5 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church Carlyle	77/143	1 February 1877	Rev. Father Perkins
63	1 March 1877	William Flentiment Mary Ann Comunale	William Glentworth Mary Ann Cornivale 💍 1877/241 William Knipe Mary Ann Knipe 💍 1877/802 William Everest Mary Ann Beal 💍 1877/558 William Comming Mary Ann Carr 💍 1877/1565 William Mitchell Mary Ann Chote 💍 1877/950 William Wain Mary Ann Loney 💍 1877/2840	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	27 22	Patea Patea	1 Month 6 years	Registrar's Office Patea	77/141	1 March 1877	James Heich Registrar
64	19 March 1877	William Pollard Elizabeth Willett	William Pollard Elizabeth Willett 💍 1877/237	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	23 23	Kakaramea Hawera	1 year 3 months	St George's Church	77/134	19 March 1877	Rev. C. A. Dasent Patea
65	19 March 1877	Edward Filehman Allie Smith	Edward Gilshnan Alice Smith 💍 1877/239	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	26 21	Carlyle Carlyle	3 years 6 years	Mr. Smith's house	77/139	19 March 1877	Rev. F. Law Patea

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).