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 0659

District of Rangiora 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
269	2 October 1878	Wm Hy. Lixton Mary Marshall		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Barber	28 18	Rangiora Rangiora	20 years 3 years	Presbyterian Ch. Rangiora	78/2835		October 2nd	Rev. W. McGregor, Pres
270	11 October 1878	Thomas Walmsley Eliza Ewart	Thomas Dalzell Eliza Ewart 💍 1878/2798	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 22	Sefton Sefton	8 years 8 years	Presbyterian Ch. Sefton	78/2841		October 11th	Rev. J. McIntosh, Pres
271	8 November 1878	John Ivory Ellen Barnard	John Ivory Ellen Barnard 💍 1878/2787	Bachelor Widow	Nurseryman [illegible]	33 23	Rangiora Rangiora	23 years 23 years	House of W. Barlecorn, Rangiora	78/2829		November 8th	Rev. C. Dallaston, Bapt
272	18 November 1878	Albert Poole Sutcliffe Emeley Rusch		Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer [illegible]	24 21	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 18 months	St. Johns Ch. Rangiora	78/2826		November 18th	Rev. B.W. Dudley, CofE
273	27 November 1878	Charles Albert Tyler Mary Ann Carter	Charles Albert Tyler Mary Ann Carter 💍 1878/2806	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 18	Rangiora Rangiora	18 months 18 years	Church of England, Rangiora	78/2827	Mother	November 27	Rev. B. W. Dudley, CofE
274	16 December 1878	George Peaill Elizabeth Alkinson	George Traill Elizabeth Atkinson 💍 1878/2807 George Aitkenhead Elizabeth Atkinson 💍 1878/626 George Smith Elizabeth Smith 💍 1878/2998 George Robertson Elizabeth Watson 💍 1878/160 George Hunter Elizabeth Nunn 💍 1878/2182	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher [illegible]	21 21	Woodend Woodend	3 days 19 years	House of Robt. Alkinson, Woodend	78/2828		December 16th	Rev. H.B. Ellis, Pres
275	19 December 1878	Henry Robert Woodham Marion Ellen Hope		Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker [illegible]	24 22	Rangiora Rangiora	10 months 21 years	Free Ch. Manse, Rangiora	78/436		December 19th	Rev. J. Macfarlane, United

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).