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 305

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar [illegible]

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
64	3 April 1877	Joseph Townsend Emily Frances Levy	Joseph Townsend Emily Frances Levy 💍 1877/948	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 19	Wellington do	12 months 19 years	St Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington	[illegible]	Solomon Levy, father	7 April 1877	Revd. A. Stock
65	3 April 1877	Samuel Shutter Harriet Gilpin	Samuel Shutler Harriet Gilpin 💍 1877/921	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	33 20	Wellington do	3 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	House of Mr. Sutton, Barther Street, Wellington	77/840	her own	3 April 1877	Rev. W. N. Weah
66	3 April 1877	Herbert Edward Tanner Morgan Jones	Herbert Edward Tanner Miriam Jones 💍 1877/1005	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	23 24	Wellington do	4 years 18 years	House of the Revd. John Muir, Woolcombe, Wellington	77/961	[illegible]	3 April 1877	Revd. John Muir
67	3 April 1877	William Stoutham Short Augusta Sarah Sleighton		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Teacher	24 22	Wellington do	2 years 16 years	House of Mrs. Sleighton, Tira Moon Road, Wellington	77/839	[illegible]	3 April 1877	Revd. W. N. Weah
68	5 April 1877	Jonathan Bidmead Eliza Warfield	Jonathan Bidmead Eliza Harfield 💍 1877/1369	Bachelor Spinster	Sitter	23 22	Upper Kawarra [illegible]	23 years 6 days	House of Mr. Milleston, Tobacconist, Lambton Quay, Wellington	77/1295	[illegible]	3 April 1877	Revd. C. S. Ogg
69	6 April 1877	Leon Cohen Catherine Asher	Leon Cohen Catherine Asher 💍 1877/983	Bachelor Spinster	Clothier	26 17	Wellington do	[illegible] about 9 years	House of David Asher, Majoribanks Street, Wellington	77/1884	David Asher	6 April 1877	Revd. D. J. Isaacs
70	9 April 1877	Hugh Loughlin Mary Ann Green		Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Dressmaker	28 23	Wellington do	12 months 2 years	House of Mrs. I. Paterson, The Terrace, Wellington	[illegible]	[illegible]	9 April 1877	Revd. I. Paterson

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).