Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 0229

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 September 1878

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

775

3 July 1878

Thomas Casley
Mary Jane Walker

Thomas Casley
Mary Jane Walker
💍 1878/1742

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Milliner

25 years
21 years

Waiotahi
Waiotahi

4 years
4 years

In the dwelling house occupied by Mr Stewart, Walker, Waiotahi, Thames

78/1688

July 11th 1878

Rev. R.S. Bunn, [illegible]

No	775
Date of Notice	3 July 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Casley	Mary Jane Walker
	💍 1878/1742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Milliner
Age	25 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Waiotahi	Waiotahi
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	In the dwelling house occupied by Mr Stewart, Walker, Waiotahi, Thames
Folio	78/1688
Consent
Date of Certificate	July 11th 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. R.S. Bunn, [illegible]

776

8 July 1878

William Lang Thorburn
Elizabeth Otto

William Lang Thorburn
Elizabeth Otto
💍 1878/1747

Bachelor
Spinster

Amalgamator
No profession

22 years
17 years

Thames
Thames

8 years
9 years

In the dwelling house occupied by Andrew Otto, Davy St, Thames

78/1692

Andrew Otto, father

8 July 1878

Rev. S.J. Neil, Pres

No	776
Date of Notice	8 July 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lang Thorburn	Elizabeth Otto
	💍 1878/1747
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Amalgamator	No profession
Age	22 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	8 years	9 years
Marriage Place	In the dwelling house occupied by Andrew Otto, Davy St, Thames
Folio	78/1692
Consent	Andrew Otto, father
Date of Certificate	8 July 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. S.J. Neil, Pres

777

8 July 1878

Thomas Donovan
Mary Susannah Brown

Thomas Donovan
Mary Susannah Brown
💍 1878/1749

Widower
Spinster

Carpenter
No profession

37 years
29 years

Thames
Thames

9 years
9 years

In the dwelling house occupied by Cyrus Brown, Augusta St, Thames

78/1694

8 July 1878

Rev. J.S. Hinton, [illegible]

No	777
Date of Notice	8 July 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Donovan	Mary Susannah Brown
	💍 1878/1749
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	No profession
Age	37 years	29 years
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	In the dwelling house occupied by Cyrus Brown, Augusta St, Thames
Folio	78/1694
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.S. Hinton, [illegible]

778

18 July 1878

James Adicks
Catherine McDermott

James Hicks
Catherine McDermott
💍 1878/3210

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Milliner

39 years
30 years

Waitangirua
Waitangirua

10 years
6 years

In the dwelling house occupied by Catherine McDermott, Rolleston St, Waitangirua

78/3244

July 18th 1878

Rev. V. Lush, [illegible]

No	778
Date of Notice	18 July 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Adicks	Catherine McDermott
BDM Match (92%)	James Hicks	Catherine McDermott
	💍 1878/3210
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Milliner
Age	39 years	30 years
Dwelling Place	Waitangirua	Waitangirua
Length of Residence	10 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In the dwelling house occupied by Catherine McDermott, Rolleston St, Waitangirua
Folio	78/3244
Consent
Date of Certificate	July 18th 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. V. Lush, [illegible]

779

22 July 1878

Humphrey Rutledge
Margaret Graham

Humphrey Autridge
Margaret Graham
💍 1878/1748

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
No profession

29 years
18 years

Waitangirua
Thames

9 years
11 years

In the dwelling house occupied by Thomas Graham, father of the bride, Rolleston St, Thames

78/1693

Thomas Graham, father

22 July 1878

Rev. S.J. Neil, [illegible]

No	779
Date of Notice	22 July 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Humphrey Rutledge	Margaret Graham
BDM Match (91%)	Humphrey Autridge	Margaret Graham
	💍 1878/1748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	No profession
Age	29 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Waitangirua	Thames
Length of Residence	9 years	11 years
Marriage Place	In the dwelling house occupied by Thomas Graham, father of the bride, Rolleston St, Thames
Folio	78/1693
Consent	Thomas Graham, father
Date of Certificate	22 July 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. S.J. Neil, [illegible]

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 1903. 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).