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 180

District of THAMES 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
695	14 May 1877	Jacot Allaway Maggie Johnson	Jacob Allaway Maggie Johnson 💍 1877/873	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	41 years 18 years	Thames Thames	1 years 2 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Brown St. Thames	77/192	Brother	19 May 1877	Rev. J. Hinton
696	29 May 1877	Amos McGriff Matilda McAihey		Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic	38 years 20 years	Thames Thames	1 years 2 years
697	31 May 1877	Charles Everitt Mary Loomey	Charles Everitt Mary Loomey 💍 1877/1423	Bachelor Spinster	Wheel Meller	26 years 17 years	Thames Kauwangorna	9 years 8 years	St Francis Roman Catholic Church Thames	77/349	Richard Loomey, Father	31 May 1877	Rev. S. Chatagnon
698	5 June 1877	George Dodd Margaret Monan	George Dodd Margaret Monan 💍 1877/881	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Housemaid	26 years 20 years	Thames Thames	1 month 4 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Thames	77/499		5 June 1877	L. H. Bower
699	4 June 1877	James Griffle Emma Eleanor Jones	James Gribble Emma Eleanor Jones 💍 1877/875	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 years 18 years	Kauwangorna Thames	3 years 3 years	In the dwelling house Wesleyan Church, Willoughby Street, Thames	77/494	James Jones, Guardian	5 June 1877	Rev. R. S. Bunn
700	11 June 1877	William Sugerson Mary Ann Bateman	William Ingerson Mary Ann Bateman 💍 1877/1418	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Milliner	24 years 20 years	Kauwangorna Thames	15 months 14 months	In the dwelling house occupied by Bateman, Milla Street, Thames	77/344	Henry Bateman, Father	12 June 1877	Rev. P. Linsley
701	18 June 1877	James Abbot Mary Frances Clements	James Abbot Mary Frances Clements 💍 1877/882	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	36 years 30 years	Fair Hill Thames	8 years 18 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Thames	77/800		18 June 1877	L. H. Bower
702	21 June 1877	Henry Endres Annie Milner	Henry Endres Annie Milner 💍 1877/877	Bachelor Spinster	Licensed Victualler Domestic	30 years 22 years	Thames Thames	40 years 5 years	In the dwelling house occupied by Fenton, Richmond Street, Thames	77/495		21 June 1877	Rev. V. Lush

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).