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 315

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar H. C. Pilmer

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
132	02 July 1877	Edward Murphy Ellen Corbett	Edward Murphy Ellen Corbett 💍 1877/1665	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Servant	26 21	Peto Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 1/2 years	Cathedral of St Mary's Hill Street	77/1593		02 July	Rev. P. McGuiness
133	03 July 1877	Philip John Murtagh Mary Humphrey	John Ph Murtagh Mary Humphrey 💍 1877/2140	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 18	Lower Hutt Leo	3 years 18 years	Cathedral of St Mary's Hill Street Wellington	77/2087	Emma Jane Silver formerly Humphrey Brother	04 July	Rev.d F. H. Fardine
134	04 July 1877	John Dorsel Valentine Matilda Charlotte Brown	John Dorset Valentine Matilda Charlotte Brown 💍 1877/2120	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 19	Wellington Charice	4 years 19 years	House of Mr. S. Parker Professor of Music	77/2086	Lewis Brown Father	04 July	Rev.d H. H. West
135	04 July 1877	David Dick Eliza Wood	David Dick Eliza Wood 💍 1877/2035	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 28	Waimui Omata Leo	3 years 17 years	Church of England Lower Hutt	77/1990		04 July	Rev.d Thos Faucourt
136	05 July 1877	William Nephine Selina Lyster	William Hepburn Selina Lyster 💍 1877/1669	Bachelor Spinster	Cabdriver Servant	21 21	Wellington Do	3 years 5 years	St Peters Church Willis Street Wellington	77/1597		05 July	Rev. Archdeacon Stock
137	06 July 1877	George Newington Mary Ann Randell	George Remington Mary Ann Randall 💍 1877/2121	Bachelor Spinster	Number	25 21	Wellington Do	25 years 21 years	House of William Harding Randell	77/2084		06 July	Rev.d W. H. West

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).