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 184

District of Thames Quarter ending 30th of September 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
713	06 August 1877	Daniel McLeon Margaret McDonald	Daniel McLean Margaret McDonald 💍 1877/2214	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domestic	45 years 25 years	Moanatairi Moanatairi	8 years 1 year	St George's Church Thames	77/2158	06 August 1877	Rev. V. Lush
714	06 August 1877	George Charles Williams Elizabeth Theresa Jared	George Charles Williams Elizabeth Theresa Jared 💍 1877/2215	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 years 25 years	Thames Thames	9 years 14 days	In the dwelling house occupied by George Charles Williams, Mary Street, Thames	77/2158	06 August 1877	Rev. R. D. Burton
715	11 August 1877	Aaron Griffith Who Harriet Ann Taddouplainer	Aaron Griffiths Harriet Ann Waddoups 💍 1877/1622	Bachelor Spinster	Opai Miner Domestic	28 years 23 years	Thames Thames	2 years 3 years	In the dwelling house of the Registrar of Marriages Thames	77/2148	15 August 1877	Chas. Power
716	22 August 1877	Matthew Kinsella Rachel Compston	Matthew Kinsella Rachel Compston 💍 1877/1621	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	30 years 23 years	Ohinemuri Ohinemuri	2 years 2 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Thames	77/2154	22 August 1877	Chas. Power
717	23 August 1877	Owen Brislin Jane Casey, nee McBron	Owen Brislin Jane Casey 💍 1877/2212	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic	42 years 30 years	Tararu Tararu	8 years 5 years	St Francis Roman Catholic Church Thames	77/2155	23 August 1877	Rev. S. Chastagnon
718	25 August 1877	Hymne Charles Stewart Gray Mary Louisa Lawlor	Wynne Charles Stewart Gray Mary Louisa Lawlor 💍 1877/2192	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	41 years 18 years	Thames Thames	8 days 9 years	St George's Church Thames	77/2159	25 August 1877	Rev. V. Lush
719	10 September 1877	Thomas Pugh Mary Treese	Thomas Pugh Mary Breese 💍 1877/1619	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Milliner	29 years 25 years	Karaka Thames Karaka Thames	9 years 6 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Hope Thames	77/2145	10 September 1877	Rev. R. S. Bunn

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).