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 301

District of Wanganui 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
1	2 January 1878	August Lint Emillie Kruger		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 19	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs 2 yrs	Registrar's Office, Wanganui	78/215	Theodore Kruger, Father	2 January 1878	G. N. Woon, Reg
2	5 January 1878	George Brown Ann Thornton	George Brown Ann Thornton 💍 1878/259	Widower Spinster	Watchmaker	40 23	Wanganui Wanganui	10 yrs 5 months	Provincial Hotel	78/212		5 January 1878	R. Bavin, Act
3	25 January 1878	Arthur Stedman Anna Coman	Arthur Stedman Anna Lomax 💍 1878/277	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	24 21	Wanganui Wanganui	5 yrs 5 yrs	Episcopalian Church	78/206		25 January 1878	F. L. Tudor, Reg
4	29 January 1878	Charles Parker Kate Mahoney	Charles Parker Kate Mahoney 💍 1878/257	Bachelor Spinster	Grazier	28 21	Wanganui Wanganui	19 months 16 months	Roman Catholic Church	78/210		29 January 1878	C. H. Kirk, RC
5	4 February 1878	Carl Leupold Henrietta Murch		Bachelor Widow	Farmer	49 50	Wanganui Wanganui	5 days 5 days	Church of England	78/209		4 February 1878	F. L. Tudor, Reg
6	4 February 1878	John Settes Juliana Taylor	John Gettes Campbell Juliana Taylor 💍 1878/278 John Bell Susan Taylor 💍 1878/3280	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 19	Wanganui Wanganui	21 yrs 2 yrs	Church of England	78/207	Ann Taylor	4 February 1878	F. L. Tudor, Reg
7	6 February 1878	Bruce Tarasous Small Emily Augusta Williams	Bryce Vavasour Powell Emily Augusta Williams 💍 1878/272	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	29 28	Nukumaru Nukumaru	14 days 6 months	Wesleyan, Presbyterian Church			6 February 1878	J. Allsworth, Pres
8	9 February 1878	George Brough Catherine Farrell	George Brough Catherine Fennell 💍 1878/258	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs 3 yrs	Roman Catholic Church	78/211		9 February 1878	C. H. Kirk
9	11 February 1878	William Hudson Clara Maria Silcock	William Hudson Davis Clara Maria Silcock 💍 1878/260	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 25	Wanganui Wanganui	22 yrs 3 yrs	Presbyterian Church, Wellington	78/213		11 February 1878	George Tannah, Pres
10	18 February 1878	John Nathman Alice Pierce	John Nuttman Alice Pierce 💍 1878/354	Widower Widow	Commission Agent	35 31	Wanganui Wanganui	14 days 14 days	Presbyterian Church, Wellington	78/309		18 February 1878	J. Paterson, Pres
11	22 February 1878	Thomas Dick Cummins Mary Elizabeth Bush	Thomas Dick Cummeri Mary Elizabeth Bush 💍 1878/255	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	31 28	Wanganui Wanganui	19 yrs 8 yrs	Episcopalian Church	78/208		22 February 1878	F. L. Tudor, Reg

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).