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 425

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar Cyrus Goulter

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
8	10 April 1877	William Eden Frances Wilson	William Eden Fanny Willson 💍 1877/1354	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	21 17	Grovetown Grovetown	3 years 1 year	English Church	74/1304	Mary Hamman, Grandmother of Frances Wilson	10 April 1877	Rev Arch Butt
9	10 April 1877	Patrick Healy Mary Kennedy	Patrick Healy Mary Kennedy 💍 1877/998	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	32 25	Blenheim Blenheim	15 years 10 months	Catholic Church	74/1916		10 April 1877	Rev A. M. Sauzeau
10	17 April 1877	William Strickland Mary Norris	William Strickland Mary Norris 💍 1877/999	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	27 21	Blenheim Blenheim	6 years 1 year	House of Revd A. M. Sauzeau, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	74/1917		17 April 1877	Revd A. M. Sauzeau
11	19 April 1877	Daniel Murphy Johanna O'Connor	Daniel Murphy Johanna O'Connor 💍 1877/3106	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	22 23	Wellington Blenheim	3 years 3 years	Catholic Church, Wellington	74/1918		19 April 1877	Revd A. M. Sauzeau
12	30 April 1877	Henry Hart Laura Taylor	Henry Hart Laura Taylor 💍 1877/1019	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	30 14	Lua Marina Blenheim	10 years 10 months	House of John Hart, Picton	74/1921		30 April 1877	Rev Arch Butt
13	4 May 1877	Frederick Birch Marian Gifford	Frederick Birch Marian Gifford 💍 1877/1008	Bachelor Spinster	Patent [illegible]	22 19	Blenheim Spring Creek	2 years 14 years	Church of England	74/1920		4 May 1877	Rev Arch Butt
14	15 May 1877	Harry Thomas Halkett Louisa Holmes Ladd	Harry Thomas Walker Louisa Holmes Ladd 💍 1877/1027	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	33 22	Renwick Town Renwick Town	4 years 15 months	Office of Registrar	74/1923		15 May 1877	Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
15	17 May 1877	Andrew Wakon Elizabeth Tory	Andrew Watson Elizabeth Tory 💍 1877/997	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 17	Blenheim Blenheim	6 years 2 years	House of Thomas Tory, Blenheim	74/1915	Thomas Tory, father of Elizabeth Tory	17 May 1877	Revd H. Sheriff
16	23 May 1877	William Johanson Katherine McKragny	William Johanson Catherine McKeagney 💍 1877/1000	Widower Spinster	Farmer	38 23	Blenheim Blenheim	5 years 3 days	Catholic Church	74/1919		23 May 1877	Revd A. M. Sauzeau

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).