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 307

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar M. Dilvery

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
78	18 April 1877	Daniel Murphy Johanna O'Connor	Daniel Murphy Johanna O'Connor 💍 1877/3106	Bach Spinster	Labourer	22 23	Wellington Wellington	2 1/2 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Blenheim	77/918		18 April 1877	Rev. A.M. Sanycon
79	18 April 1877	Henry Cook Selina Andrews	Henry Cook Selina Andrews 💍 1877/947	Bach Spinster	Boarding House Keeper Servant	25 24	Wellington Wellington	6 mths do	St Peters Willis Street Wellington	77/856		18 April 1877	Vouble A. Stock
80	18 April 1877	Henry Charles Cheesman Harriet Rowlands	Henry Charles Chaseman Hariet Rowlands 💍 1877/960	Bach Spinster	Clerk	27 25	Wellington Wellington	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	St Marks Adelaide Road Wellington	77/853		18 April 1877	Rev. R. Coffee
81	24 April 1877	James Taylor Margaret Mary Langslow	James Taylor Dinah Jane Lynds 💍 1877/1488 James Taylor Mary Ann Collins 💍 1877/2201	Bach Spinster	Turner	27 19	Karwarra Relone	2 3/12 years 4 mths	St James Lower Hutt	77/858	Robert Langslow, father	24 April 1877	Rev. Thos Lancaster
82	25 April 1877	Alfred Robinson Mary Anna Campbell	Alfred Robinson Mary Anna Campbell 💍 1877/928	Bach Spinster	Bootmaker	27 21	Wellington Wellington	23 mths 22 mths	House of Albert Fisher Woodward Street Wellington	77/846		25 April 1877	Rev. A. Read
83	26 April 1877	Edward Player Mary Crampton	Edward Player Mary Crampton 💍 1877/1351	Bach Spinster	Servant Servant	32 21	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3 years	Church of St Mary alle Angels Boulcott Street Wellington	77/1293		26 April 1877	Rev. M.J. Kearney
84	26 April 1877	James Gorrie Mary Alexander	James Gorrie May Alexander 💍 1877/1374	Bach Spinster	Sawmiller	32 21	Mungaroa Mungaroa	11 years 9 years	House of W.S. Paterson The Terrace Wellington	77/1300		26 April 1877	Rev. W.S. Paterson
85	28 April 1877	Henry William Oakes Annie Rechabina Hillard		Bach Spinster	Butcher Servant	22 28	Relone Wellington	9 mths 3 years	St Marks Sussex Square Wellington	77/852		28 April 1877	Revd Rd Coffee

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).