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 312

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1877

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
115	06 June 1877	Harry Lyer Martha Charlotte Bould	Harry Tyer Martha Charlotte Bould 💍 1877/980	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	25 20	Nga[illegible]uranga Johnsonville	20 months 20 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	77/881	Ann Bould, Mother	06 June 1877	Registrar Wellington
116	07 June 1877	Walter Roberts Jane Sivasford	Walter Roberts Jane Swafford 💍 1877/944	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 22	Wellington do	20 years 22 years	St Pauls	77/863		07 June 1877	Rev. B.W. Harvey
117	08 June 1877	David Williams Ann Blatetsford	David Williams Ann Blatchford 💍 1877/1278	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 22	Wellington do	27 years 3 months	Church of England	77/227		08 June 1877	Rev. J. A. Newth
118	09 June 1877	Holland Andrews Elizabeth Heovuch Sauvaram	Holland Andrews Elizabeth Harriet Sauvarin 💍 1877/1307	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Servant	21 18	Wellington do	20 years 2 1/2 years	House of George Maulhet	77/254		09 June 1877	Rev. N. B. Redstone
119	09 June 1877	James Cottrell Lizzie Rosaline Bassett	James Cottrell Lizzie Rose Hassett 💍 1877/1341	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	23 24	Wellington do	6 months 2 years	St Mary All the Angels	77/290		09 June 1877	Rev. H. Kearney
120	11 June 1877	Thomas Sivede Mary Whitton	Thomas Swede Mary Witton 💍 1877/1352	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 25	Porto Wellington Wellington	3 days 25 years	House of Revd. Jas. Paterson	77/302		11 June 1877	Revd. Jas. Paterson
121	11 June 1877	William Mitchell Mary Ann Chote	William Mitchell Mary Ann Chote 💍 1877/950	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 19	Wellington do	1 week 2 1/2 years	St Peter's Church	77/869		11 June 1877	Venser Arch. Stock
122	12 June 1877	Samuel John Wyeth Caroline Ann Tremayne	Samuel John Whyeth Caroline Ann Tremayne 💍 1877/940	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Wellington do	18 months 12 months	House of	77/857		12 June 1877	Reva. Alex Reid

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).