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 311

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

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
108	25 May 1877	Henry Charles Jones Agnes Jane Smith	Henry Charles Jones Agnes Jane Smith 💍 1877/949	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 20	Wellington Wellington	5 years 2 years	St Peter's, Willis Street, Wellington	77/868	William Smith, father	25 May 1877	Rev. B. Avel Stoets
109	25 May 1877	Joseph Moncrieff Andrew Greig Anderson	Joseph Moncrieff Andrina Gregg Anderson 💍 1877/1375	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	21 24	Wellington Wellington	1 month 1 month	House of Rev. Jas Paterson, The Terrace, Wellington	77/1301		26 May 1877	Rev. Jas Paterson
110	25 May 1877	Robert Netley Redford Jemima Maria Clark	Robert Netley Redford Jemima Maria Clark 💍 1877/1306	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 18	Wellington Wellington	2 months do	House of Robert Everden, Argyle Street, Wellington	77/1256	Annie Clark, mother	25 May 1877	Rev. H. B. Redstone
111	28 May 1877	Charles Collis the younger Frances Coppard	Charles Collis Junior Frances Coppard 💍 1877/953	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 24	Wainuiomata Wainuiomata	20 years 12 months	House of Rev. John Moir, Woolcombe Street, Wellington	77/871		28 May 1877	Rev. John Moir
112	28 May 1877	George Hewitt Ann Webb	George Hewitt Annie Webb 💍 1877/979	Bachelor Spinster	Cook do	36 30	Wellington Wellington	6 months 12 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	77/880		28 May 1877	Registrar Wellington
113	31 May 1877	William Harrison Olive Barrow formerly Mudgway	William Harrison Olive Barrow 💍 1877/932	Widower Widow	Farmer Settler	50 49	Horokiwi Road [illegible] Porirua	8 years 20 years	Wesleyan Church, Manners Street, Wellington	77/850		31 May 1877	Rev. Alex Reid Wes[leyan]
114	4 June 1877	William Charles Clements Jane Cook formerly Jenkins	[No folio number; no matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Widow	Printer	24 26	Wellington Wellington	18 months 26 yrs	House of Revd. John Moir, Woolcombe Street, Wellington			4 June 1877	Rev. John Moir Pres[byterian]

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).