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 875

District of Lawrence Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar Henry J. Cobel

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
255	11 May 1877	Abraham Long Elizabeth Jane Getts	Abraham Long Elizabeth Jane Gibbs 💍 1877/1383	Bachelor Widow	Miner House Keeper	41 39	Weatherstones Weatherstones	15 years 8 years	At the Residence of Mr Abraham Long at Weatherstones	77/1333	11 May 1877	John Menzies
256	14 May 1877	John Wallace Helen Patrick	John Wallace Helen Patrick 💍 1877/1387	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper None	29 years 17 years	Ngapeka Moa Flat	2 months 17 years	At the Residence of Thos Patrick, Teviot, District at Moa Flat		14 May 1877	R. Telford
257	17 May 1877	William Quinn Mary Ann Pryce	William Quin Mary Anne Joyce 💍 1877/1444 William Wain Mary Ann Loney 💍 1877/2840 William King Mary Ann Wills 💍 1877/905 William Smith Mary Ann Kane 💍 1878/205 William Knipe Mary Ann Knipe 💍 1877/802 William Penny Mary Ann Perry 💍 1878/37 William Antill Mary Ann Orton 💍 1877/3094 William Comming Mary Ann Carr 💍 1877/1565 William Fooley Mary Ann Ely 💍 1877/1147 William Dawson Mary Ann Andrews 💍 1877/1198 William Watt Mary Anne Slaite 💍 1878/455 William Mitchell Mary Ann Chote 💍 1877/950 William Law Riddell Mary Ann Frazer 💍 1877/659	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk None	27 years 23 years	Lawrence Lawrence	7 years 1 1/4 years	At Trinity Church	77/1340	17 May 1877	Geo P. Beaumont
258	26 May 1877	Thomas Johnston Caroline Martha Richards	Thomas Johnston Caroline Martha Richards 💍 1877/2045	Bachelor Spinster	School Master None	38 years 22 years	Lawrence Lawrence	1 year 10 years	At Trinity Church Lawrence	77/2010	5 July 1877	Geo P. Beaumont
259	12 June 1877	Henry Hague Holander Francis Charlotte Jackalery		Bachelor Spinster	Banker None	31 years 20 years	Lawrence Lawrence	18 months 11 months	At Trinity Church Lawrence	77/1341	12 June 1877	Geo P. Beaumont
260	20 June 1877	Edward Goodwins Barbara Robinson	Edward Goodwin Barbara Robinson 💍 1877/1446	Bachelor Widow	Miner None	42 years 34 years	Gabriel's Gully Do	1 year 11 years	At the Residence of Mr. Matthew Goodwin, Ross Gully	77/1342	20 June 1877	Geo P. Beaumont
261	29 June 1877	Edwin Sawyer Ellen Ross	Edwin Joseph Sawyer Ellen Ross 💍 1877/1447 David M Sutherland Ellen Ross 💍 1877/1722	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	33 years 25 years	Weatherstones Lawrence	10 years 3 days	At Trinity Church Lawrence	77/1343	29 June 1877	Geo P. Beaumont

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).