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 655

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 June 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
253	23 April 1878	Donald George Matheson Margaret Athmora	Dougall George Matheson Margaret Atkinson 💍 1878/1181	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Not any	31 28	Rangiora Murchison, Rangiora	3 days 2 years	Church of England, Rangiora	78/1204		23 April 1878	Rev B.W. Dudley
254	14 May 1878	Walter Rowle Mary Eliza Hayes	Walter Rouse Mary Eliza Hayes 💍 1878/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dressmaker	31 26	Southbrook Rangiora	1 year 10 months	Office of Registrar	78/1208		15 May 1878	A H Cunningham, Registrar
255	16 May 1878	Frederick Bird Emma Greenwood		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Not any	30 27	Southbrook Southbrook, Rangiora	4 years 20 years	Free Methodist Church, Rangiora	78/1209		16 May 1878	Rev Henry R Wilkinson, United Minister
256	25 May 1878	Abraham Darrell Sarah Ann Skudder	Abraham Barrell Sarah Ann Skudder 💍 1878/1182	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Not any	25 19	Rangiora Rangiora	16 years 4 years	Church of England	78/1205	Thomas Skudder, Father	25 May 1878	Rev B.W. Dudley, C of E
257	8 June 1878	Thomas Revell Louisa Gendry	Thomas Revell Agnese Gundey 💍 1878/1253	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Teacher	28 28	Flaxton, Rangiora Avonside	18 months 7 days	Church of England, Avonside	78/1253		8 June 1878	Rev H. Glasson, Christchurch
258	10 June 1878	William John Strong Boag Isabella Booth	William John Ivory Doggett Isabella Booth 💍 1878/1180	Bachelor Spinster	Boot Maker Not any	25 17	Woodend, Rangiora Wood End, Rangiora	3 years 17 years	House of Mrs Booth, Wood End	78/1203	Sarah Booth, Mother	10 June 1878	Rev John Luxford
259	15 June 1878	John King Agnes Lilly		Bachelor Widow	Clerk Not any	32 33	Lyttelton Rangiora	3 years 15 years	House of Mrs Russell, Rangiora	78/12043		15 June 1878	Rev Chas Fraser
260	20 June 1878	Caleb James Lee Anne Maria Reever	Caleb James Lee Annie Maria Reeves 💍 1878/1183	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	24 18	Rangiora Rangiora	2.5 years 3 years	Church of England, Rangiora	78/1206	Charles Munn, Grandfather	24 June 1878	Rev B.W. Dudley
261	24 June 1878	Nicholas Millyain Maria Going	Nicholas Milligan Maria Going 💍 1878/2034	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	24 18	Rangiora Rangiora	6 months 6 months	Catholic Church, Rangiora	78/11983	George Going, Father	24 June 1878	Rev N. Butterfield

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).