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 269

District of Cambridge Quarter ending 31 March 1878

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
29	12 January 1878	Henry Thomas Hughes Fanny Bourman	Henry Thomas Hughes Fanny Bowman 💍 1878/247	Widower Widow	Settler	38 33	Ohaupo Ohaupo	2 years 2 weeks	In house of H. T. Hughes	78/176		12 January 1878	Rev. T. L. Brady
30	12 January 1878	Francis Dyer Rich Lilley May Wright	Francis Dyer Rich Smale Lilly May Wright 💍 1878/248	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Cambridge Cambridge	5 years 7 years	Episcopalian Church	78/177	William Wright, Father	12 January 1878	Rev. W. N. de L. Willis
31	14 January 1878	James Dunnett Emma Hall	James Annett Emma Hall 💍 1878/250	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	21 24	Hamilton Hamilton	2.5 years 14 years	At the office of the Registrar	78/178		14 January 1878	B. C. Beale, Registrar
32	14 January 1878	Edmund Fitzpatrick Caroline Powlesland	Edmund Fitzpatrick Caroline Powlesland 💍 1878/216	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	37 25	Newcastle Newcastle	12 years 4 months	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	78/168		14 January 1878	Rev. J. Golden
33	21 January 1878	Burton John Daveney Emily Matilda Abbott	Burton John Daveney Emily Matilda Abbott 💍 1878/249	Widower Spinster	Late H.M.S.	43 24	Auckland Cambridge	9 years 14 days	At the Episcopalian Church	78/178		21 January 1878	Rev. W. N. de L. Willis
34	21 January 1878	John O'Brien Armenella Lawson	John O'Brien Armenella Lawson 💍 1878/218	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Cambridge Cambridge	10 years 10 years	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	78/170		21 January 1878	Rev. J. Golden
35	22 January 1878	Alexander Jackson Lydia Ripley	Alexander Jackson Lydia Ripley 💍 1878/217	Bachelor Spinster	Porter	33 35	Hamilton Hamilton	2 months 5 years	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	78/169		22 January 1878	Rev. J. Golden
36	20 February 1878	William Kerr Mary Thompson	William Kerr Mary Thompson 💍 1878/219 William Vaughan Jane Thompson 💍 1878/466 William Williams Jane Thompson 💍 1878/2253	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Cambridge Cambridge	3 years 13 years	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	78/171	Peter Thompson, Father	20 February 1878	Rev. J. Golden
37	3 March 1878	Edmond Healy Harriett Lockley	Edmond Healy Harriett Lockley 💍 1878/251	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	40 22	Newcastle Hamilton	7 years 3 days	At the office of the Registrar	78/180		3 March 1878	B. C. Beale, Registrar
38	5 March 1878	Herbert Brunton Mary Ann McKearney	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon	24 22	Cambridge Cambridge	3 months 13 years	At the office of the Registrar Hamilton			5 March 1878	B. C. Beale, Registrar
39	7 March 1878	John Joseph Shanaghan Frances Caroline McKearney	John Joseph Shanaghan Frances Caroline McKearney 💍 1878/252	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Domestic Servant	24 17	Cambridge Cambridge	6 months 13 years	At the office of the Registrar	78/181	Mary Ann McKearney, Mother	7 March 1878	B. C. Beale, Registrar

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).