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 573

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar A. H. Cunningham

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
231	2 July 1877	Francis Charles Hill Harriet Susannah Hollow	Francis Charles Hill Harriet Emma Holton 💍 1877/1817	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith not any	26 23	Southbrook Rangiora Southbrook Rangiora	10 days 14 years	House of Mr Hollow	74/1173		2 July 1877	Rev. Wm. Faucett
232	16 July 1877	Harry Greenwood Ellen Neilets	Harry Gremwood Ellen Nield 💍 1877/1840	Bachelor Spinster	Saw Miller not any	25 24	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 12 years	Free Methodist Church	74/1172		16 July 1877	Rev. Walter Lockwood, Minister
233	24 July 1877	Arthur Ellis Elisabeth Lawrie	Arthur Ellis Elizabeth Lammie 💍 1877/1822	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Dealer not any	24 19	Rangiora Flaxton	6 months 6 years	House of Mr Lawrie	74/1198	Hugh Lawrie, Father	27 July 1877	Rev. W. McGregor
234	28 July 1877	Peter H. Lorrie Mary Shepherd	Peter De Loni Mary Shepherd 💍 1877/1821	Widower Widow	Photographer not any	65 56	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 6 years	Office of Registrar	74/1177		28 July 1877	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
235	31 July 1877	Wm. Adam Taylor Elizabeth Mary Pain	William Adam Taylor Elizabeth Mary Pain 💍 1877/1837	Bachelor Spinster	Painter & Glazier not any	25 25	Rangiora Rangiora	2 years 6 days	Church of England	74/1469		31 July 1877	Rev. B. W. Dudley
236	28 August 1877	Robert Dunkley Emily Rose Amanda Luxton	Robert Dunkley Emily Rose Amanda Luxton 💍 1877/1838	Bachelor Spinster	Tin Smith not any	26 20	Rangiora Rangiora	3 years 20 years	Church of England	74/1440	John Luxton, Father	22 August 1877	Rev. B. W. Dudley
237	30 August 1877	Isaac Miles Ellinor Miller	James Miles Eleanor Miller 💍 1877/1830	Bachelor Spinster	Carter not any	26 21	Rangiora Rangiora	19 years 1 year	Church of England	74/1485		30 August 1877	Rev. J. R. Wilson
238	1 September 1877	Thomas Thompson Mary Ann Barrett	Thomas Thompson Mary Ann Barrett 💍 1877/1818	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer not any	26 18	Southbrook Rangiora Rangiora	18 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church	74/1494	James Barrett, Father	1 September 1877	Rev. Wm. Faucett
239	3 September 1877	Michael Curtin Annie Dougherty	Michael Curtin Annie Dougherty 💍 1877/2102	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer General Servant	22 19	Rangiora Rangiora	4 months 18 months	Catholic Church	74/2068	Without Parent or Friend to consent	3 September 1877	Rev. N. Binsfield

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).