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 0737

District of Akaroa Quarter ending 31 March 1878

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

15 January 1878

William Gibson
Mary Eleanor Drew

William Gibson Inman
Mary Eleanor Dicken
💍 1878/603

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
22

German Bay
French Farm

14 years
4 years

Church of England

78/584

15 January 1878

Rev. P. Anderson

No	1
Date of Notice	15 January 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gibson	Mary Eleanor Drew
BDM Match (74%)	William Gibson Inman	Mary Eleanor Dicken
	💍 1878/603
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	22
Dwelling Place	German Bay	French Farm
Length of Residence	14 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	78/584
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Anderson

20 January 1878

George Stanbury
Margaret Belcher

George Stanbury
Margaret Belcher
💍 1878/74

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
22

Little River
Little River

13 years
14 years

At the Dwelling House of John Francis, Little River

78/583

29 January 1878

Rev. G. V. Otway

No	2
Date of Notice	20 January 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Stanbury	Margaret Belcher
	💍 1878/74
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Little River	Little River
Length of Residence	13 years	14 years
Marriage Place	At the Dwelling House of John Francis, Little River
Folio	78/583
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. V. Otway

29 January 1878

George Mould
Jane Harriett Musson

George Mould
Jane Harriett Missen
💍 1878/586

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
19

Okains Bay
Akaroa

3 months
9 years

The Registrars Office, Akaroa

78/585

Balens Musson, Father

30 January 1878

Justin Aylmer, Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	29 January 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Mould	Jane Harriett Musson
BDM Match (95%)	George Mould	Jane Harriett Missen
	💍 1878/586
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Okains Bay	Akaroa
Length of Residence	3 months	9 years
Marriage Place	The Registrars Office, Akaroa
Folio	78/585
Consent	Balens Musson, Father
Date of Certificate	30 January 1878
Officiating Minister	Justin Aylmer, Registrar

1 February 1878

Frederick Arthur
Agnes Jane Roberts

Frederick Arthur Anson
Agnes Jane Roberts
💍 1878/606

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

27
20

Peraki
Akaroa

2 years
20 years

Church of England, Akaroa

78/590

James Roberts, Father

1 February 1878

Rev. P. Anderson

No	4
Date of Notice	1 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Arthur	Agnes Jane Roberts
BDM Match (86%)	Frederick Arthur Anson	Agnes Jane Roberts
	💍 1878/606
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Peraki	Akaroa
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Akaroa
Folio	78/590
Consent	James Roberts, Father
Date of Certificate	1 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Anderson

2 February 1878

Ralph Beard
Mary Seymour

Ralph Beard
Mary Seymour
💍 1878/604

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
23

Barrys Bay
Barrys Bay

3 years
3 years

At the Dwelling House of Walter Firm

78/588

2 February 1878

Rev. P. Anderson

No	5
Date of Notice	2 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Beard	Mary Seymour
	💍 1878/604
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Barrys Bay	Barrys Bay
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	At the Dwelling House of Walter Firm
Folio	78/588
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Anderson

13 February 1878

George Austin
Helen Drew Morey

George Austin
Helen Ann Morey
💍 1878/608

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
20

Akaroa
Akaroa

3 years
10 years

At the Dwelling House of Edward William Morey, Akaroa

78/592

Edward William Morey, Father

13 February 1878

Rev. William Douglas, Pres.

No	6
Date of Notice	13 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Austin	Helen Drew Morey
BDM Match (88%)	George Austin	Helen Ann Morey
	💍 1878/608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Akaroa	Akaroa
Length of Residence	3 years	10 years
Marriage Place	At the Dwelling House of Edward William Morey, Akaroa
Folio	78/592
Consent	Edward William Morey, Father
Date of Certificate	13 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Douglas, Pres.

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 1908. 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).