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 275

District of Cambridge Quarter ending 31 December 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
56	18 October 1878	John Prendergast Lydia Starr	John Prendergast Lydia Starr 💍 1878/2504	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 19	Hamilton Newcastle	1 year 9 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Newcastle	78/2544	Charles Starr, Father	18 October 1878	Rev. John Golden
57	28 October 1878	James George Cook Harriett Mason Adamson	James George Cook Harriett Mason Adamson 💍 1878/2503	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	40 21	Hamilton Hamilton	3 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church, Hamilton	78/2545		28 October 1878	Rev. Mr Evans
58	9 November 1878	William Henry Randerson Emily Bartlett	William Henry Randerson Emily Bartlett 💍 1878/2502	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Cambridge Cambridge	8 years 4 years	House of Daniel Bartlett, Cambridge	78/2542		9 November 1878	Rev. W. J. Watkins
59	16 November 1878	John Niccol Jessie Henderson Hunt	John Niccol Jessie Henderson Hunt 💍 1878/2505	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Ngaruawahia Ngaruawahia	2 years 2 years	Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	78/2543	Richard J. Hunt, Father	16 November 1878	Rev. Wm Calder
60	19 November 1878	John Gordon Margaret McIntyre	John Gordon Margaret McIntire 💍 1878/2506	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	35 25	Cambridge Cambridge	10 years 3 weeks	Office of the Registrar, Hamilton	78/2546		19 November 1878	B. C. Beale, Registrar
61	21 November 1878	Stephen Tucker Elizabeth Clarke	Stephen Tucker Elizabeth Clarke 💍 1878/1414	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 22	Hamilton Hamilton	4 years 2 years	House of Mr Stephen Tucker, Hamilton	78/3380		21 November 1878	Rev. H. D. Davis
62	27 November 1878	James Hunter Eliza Emma Hooper	James Hunter Eliza Emma Hooper 💍 1878/2497	Bachelor Spinster	Coppersmith	26 24	Whatawhata Whatawhata	6 years 2 years	House of Dr Hooper, Karakariki	78/2538		27 November 1878	Rev. C. H. Schnackenberg
63	21 December 1878	Daniel Coe Sophia Moore	Daniel Coe Sophia Moore 💍 1878/2496	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	25 16	Whatawhata Whatawhata	2 months 8 years	School House, Karakariki	78/2539	John Moore, Father	21 December 1878	Rev. C. H. Schnackenberg

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).