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 305

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 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
31	25 June 1878	Sydney W. Beckham Mary Jane Howell	Sydney William Beckwith Margaret Howell 💍 1878/1807	Bachelor Spinster	Coach trimmer	26 17	Wanganui Wanganui	12 months 1 week	In the private residence of Mrs C.H. Mowlding, Wanganui	78/1132	No person legally authorized	1 July 1878	Rev. Wm Lee
32	2 July 1878	Thomas Crowley Ann Green	Thomas Connolly Ann Green 💍 1878/1806	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	52 42	Taylorville Taylorville	30 years 30 years	In the private residence of Thomas Crowley, Taylorville	78/1129		2 July 1878	Rev. Wm Lee
33	2 July 1878	Francis H. Walton Agatha A. Borlase		Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	22 26	Wanganui Wanganui	2.5 years 15 years	In the Episcopal Church, Wanganui	78/3269		2 July 1878	Rev. T. L. Tudor
34	8 July 1878	J. B. Armstrong Annie McDonald	Peter Armstrong Anne McGill 💍 1878/419	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 20	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 4 years	In the private residence of Mr J. Hogg, Wanganui	78/1133		8 July 1878	Rev. Wm Lee
35	8 July 1878	J. Bradshaw Martha Ratcliff	George Felix Braithwaite Martha Ratcliff 💍 1878/1808	Bachelor Spinster	Smith [illegible]	49 39	Wanganui Wanganui	13 years 4 years	In the private residence of Mr J. Hogg, Wanganui	78/1133		12 July 1878	Rev. James Treadwell
36	12 July 1878	Jas. T. Anderson Annie McDonald		Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	19 21	Wanganui Wanganui	19 years 3 years	In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui	78/1142	John Armstrong, father	12 July 1878	Rev. James Treadwell
37	15 July 1878	Charles Borrows Isabella Murray	Charles Gordon Isabella Murray 💍 1878/1788	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer [illegible]	39 25	Wanganui Wanganui	10 years 2 years	In the private residence of Mr E. N. Liffiton, Wanganui	78/1135		15 July 1878	Rev. James Treadwell
38	17 July 1878	Benjamin R. Venn Clara Potts	Benjamin McCaul Clara Potto 💍 1878/3214	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 25	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years	In the Episcopal Church, Wanganui	78/3261		17 July 1878	Rev. T. L. Tudor
39	23 July 1878	August Klein Rosalie Penner	August Ihlein Rosahie Penner 💍 1878/1791	Bachelor Spinster	Gardiner	27 18	St Johns East Town	2 years 2 years	In the Registrar's Office, Wanganui	78/1143	Auguste Penner, Mother	23 July 1878	G. M. Moon, Reg
40	1 August 1878	William S. Farrant Henrietta J. Foster	William Parker Henrietta Jane Foster 💍 1878/3215	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	23 17	Wanganui Wanganui	1 year 1 year	In the Episcopal Church, Wanganui	78/3262	Father	2 August 1878	Rev. T. L. Tudor
41	13 August 1878	Granby Francis Elizabeth Forrest		Bachelor Widow	Hotel keeper	27 25	Halcombe Wanganui	1 week 7 days	In the private residence of Mr John Campbell, Wanganui	78/1436		13 August 1878	Rev. James Treadwell

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).