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 427

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar Cyrus Goulton Squires

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
19	16 July 1877	David Hill Pattie Mary McRae Fulton	David Hill Pattie Mary McRae Fulton 💍 1877/1790	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 19	Blenheim Lower Wairau	14 years 9 years	House of Chas Fulton, Bohally Lower Wairau	77/1622	Chas Fulton, father of Mary McRae Fulton	16 July 1877	Rev W. Sherriff Pres
20	19 July 1877	Thomas Giles Mary Ann Isaac	Thomas Giles Mary Ann Jean McIsaac 💍 1877/1791	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	22 18	Renwick Town Upper Wairau	6 years 18 years	House of Rev W. Sherriff Blenheim	77/1623	R. McIsaac, father of Mary Ann McIsaac	19 July 1877	Rev W. Sherriff Pres
21	27 July 1877	Edward Martin Emma Rosa Belsey	Edward Martin Emma Rose Belsey 💍 1877/1753	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	33 20	Blenheim Blenheim	15 months 3 years	House of David Bieshell, Lower Wairau	77/1691	No person in Colony having authority to give consent	2 July 1877	Rev Arch Butt left
22	30 July 1877	William Reader Mary Ann Elizabeth Fulton	William Reader Mary Ann Elizabeth Fulton 💍 1877/1764	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 18	Pelorus Valley Pelorus Valley	2 years 11 years	House of Rev Is. Rishworth Blenheim	77/1696	No person in Colony having authority to give consent	30 July 1877	Rev Is. Rishworth Mrs
23	30 July 1877	Frank Afshea Goull Ellen Fanny Empson	Frank Arthur Gould Ellen Fanny Empson 💍 1877/1760	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	22 20	Blenheim Blenheim	2 years 5 years	House of Louisa Empson Blenheim	77/1692	Louisa Empson, Mother of Ellen Fanny Empson	30 July 1877	Rev Arch Butt left
24	31 July 1877	Richard Dodds Norworthy Susannah Wrigley	Richard Doidge Nosworthy Susannah Wrigley 💍 1877/1765	Widower Widow	Storekeeper Boot & Shoe Dealer	45 40	Blenheim Blenheim	17 years 12 years	House of Rev Is. Rishworth	77/1694		31 July 1877	Rev Is. Rishworth Mrs
25	14 August 1877	William Baker Girling Elizabeth Ann Clark	William Baker Girling Elizabeth Ann Clarke 💍 1877/1766	Widower Widow	Draper	45 35	Blenheim Blenheim	3 years [illegible]	House of Fredk Heaps, Farmer, Grove Road Blenheim	77/1698		14 August 1877	Rev Is. Rishworth Mrs

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).