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 297

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar M. Wilmer

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

02 January 1877

Henry Adams Harris
Bridget Stitt

Henry Adam Harris
Bridget Still
💍 1877/741

Bachelor
Spinster

Ordnance

25
22

Wellington
do

1 week
1 week

St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington

77/1634

02 January 1877

Rev. I. P. O'Reilly

No	1
Date of Notice	02 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Adams Harris	Bridget Stitt
BDM Match (90%)	Henry Adam Harris	Bridget Still
	💍 1877/741
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ordnance
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	77/1634
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Rev. I. P. O'Reilly

02 January 1877

Henry Thos. Luversage
Mary Frances Stephens

Henry Thomas Liversage
Mary Francis Stephens
💍 1877/299

Bachelor
Spinster

Boilermaker

22
21

Wellington
do

16 months
3 days

House of Mrs. Jaquierey, Boulcott Street, Wellington

77/181

02 January 1877

Rev. W. Dewsbury

No	2
Date of Notice	02 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Thos. Luversage	Mary Frances Stephens
BDM Match (89%)	Henry Thomas Liversage	Mary Francis Stephens
	💍 1877/299
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boilermaker
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	16 months	3 days
Marriage Place	House of Mrs. Jaquierey, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	77/181
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Dewsbury

02 January 1877

John Joseph Cashman
Mary Slattery

John J C Corliss
Mary Slattery
💍 1877/718

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic Servant

21
19

Wellington
do

11 years
3 years

St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington

77/1635

No one in Colony

02 January 1877

Rev. I. P. O'Reilly

No	3
Date of Notice	02 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Joseph Cashman	Mary Slattery
BDM Match (71%)	John J C Corliss	Mary Slattery
	💍 1877/718
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic Servant
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	11 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	77/1635
Consent	No one in Colony
Date of Certificate	02 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Rev. I. P. O'Reilly

20 January 1877

Edward Stowe
Jane Goddard

Edwin Stowe
Mary Jane Goddard
💍 1877/322

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker
Domestic Servant

28
30

Wellington
do

3 months
3 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

77/226

02 January 1877

Registrar of Marriages, Wellington

No	4
Date of Notice	20 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Stowe	Jane Goddard
BDM Match (73%)	Edwin Stowe	Mary Jane Goddard
	💍 1877/322
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker	Domestic Servant
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	77/226
Consent
Date of Certificate	02 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Wellington

02 January 1877

Alfred Young
Annie Welch

Alfred Young
Annie Welch
💍 1877/320

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

32
18

Wellington
do

2 months
2 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

77/224

No one in Colony

02 January 1877

Registrar, Wellington

No	5
Date of Notice	02 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Young	Annie Welch
	💍 1877/320
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	32	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	77/224
Consent	No one in Colony
Date of Certificate	02 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Registrar, Wellington

03 January 1877

Isaac Clark
Maria Wootton

Isaac Clark
Maria Wootten
💍 1877/316

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Cook

27
26

Wellington
do

20 years
4 years

St Paul's Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

77/203

03 January 1877

Rev. B. W. Harvey

No	6
Date of Notice	03 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Isaac Clark	Maria Wootton
BDM Match (96%)	Isaac Clark	Maria Wootten
	💍 1877/316
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Cook
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	20 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	77/203
Consent
Date of Certificate	03 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. W. Harvey

04 January 1877

Charles Edward Luxford the younger
Harriet Clarke

Charles Edward Pensford
Harriett Clarke
💍 1877/300

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper's Assistant
Dressmaker

21
25

Wellington
do

21 years
2 1/2 months

House of Charles Edward Luxford the Elder, Dixon Street, Wellington

77/182

08 January 1877

Rev. Alex Reid

No	7
Date of Notice	04 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Luxford the younger	Harriet Clarke
BDM Match (73%)	Charles Edward Pensford	Harriett Clarke
	💍 1877/300
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper's Assistant	Dressmaker
Age	21	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	21 years	2 1/2 months
Marriage Place	House of Charles Edward Luxford the Elder, Dixon Street, Wellington
Folio	77/182
Consent
Date of Certificate	08 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alex Reid

04 January 1877

Henry Oslon
Fredouika Hermansen

Henry Olson
Frederikke Hermansen
💍 1877/324

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner
Domestic Servant

37
28

Wellington
do

3 days
12 months

House of Revd. John Ford, Boulcott Street, Wellington

77/205

08 January 1877

Revd. John Ford

No	8
Date of Notice	04 January 1877
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Oslon	Fredouika Hermansen
BDM Match (81%)	Henry Olson	Frederikke Hermansen
	💍 1877/324
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner	Domestic Servant
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	3 days	12 months
Marriage Place	House of Revd. John Ford, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	77/205
Consent
Date of Certificate	08 January 1877
Officiating Minister	Revd. John Ford

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 1903. 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).