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 0759

District of Ashburton 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
84	6 April 1878	Arthur Ede Mary Ann Littlecott	Arthur Ede Mary Ann Littlecott 💍 1878/1439	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	21 years 21 years	Brookside, Ashburton Ashburton	15 years 13 months	St Stephen's Church, Ashburton	78/1323		6 April 1878	The Revd W. E. Paige
85	19 April 1878	John Hurrell Alice Elizabeth Johnson	John Hurrell Alice Elizabeth Johnson 💍 1878/1427	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 years 24 years	Ashburton Ashburton	2 months 6 weeks	In the private dwelling house of George Andrews, Ashburton	78/1312		19 April 1878	The Revd W. B. Marten
86	15 May 1878	Thomas Gill Elizabeth Price	Thomas Gill Elizabeth Price 💍 1878/1426	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	26 years 15 years	Mount Somers Mount Somers	9 months 3 years	Private dwellinghouse of Revd. W.B. Marten, Ashburton	78/1311	Declaration that there is no person having authority to give consent.	15 May 1878	The Revd W. B. Marten
87	15 May 1878	Charles Harding Hannah Stone	Charles Harding Hannah Sloan 💍 1878/1447	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	24 years 35 years	Longbeach Longbeach	1 year 1 year	St Stephen's Church, Ashburton	78/1324		15 May 1878	The Revd W. E. Paige
88	27 May 1878	James Wilson Mary Jane Bennett	James Wilson Mary Jane Bennett 💍 1878/1437	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 22 years	Wakanui Wakanui	4 years 4 years	Private dwellinghouse of John Bennett, Wakanui	78/1321		27 May 1878	The Revd H. B. Burnett
89	7 June 1878	James Osborne Fanny Ede	James Osborne Fanny Ede 💍 1878/1458	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 years 17 years	Willoughby Willoughby	3 years 5 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	78/1325	Benjamin Ede, Father	7 June 1878	The Revd W. E. Paige
90	10 June 1878	George Alfred Vincent Jane Turton	George Alfred Vincent Jane Turtin 💍 1878/1438	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 years 19 years	Ashburton Ashburton	5 years 19 years	In the private dwelling house of William Robert Turton, Ashburton	78/1322	William Turton, Father	10 June 1878	The Revd H. B. Burnett
91	12 June 1878	Robert Meynell Anne Harris	Robert Meynell Annie Harris 💍 1878/1466	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 years 18 years	Winslow Winslow	6 months 6 months	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	78/1327	Alfred Harris, Father	12 June 1878	The Revd W. E. Paige
92	15 June 1878	Henry Hudson Anne Maria Dawson	Henry Hudson Annie Maria Dawson 💍 1878/1465	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 years 25 years	Waterton Waterton	4 years 4 years	St Stephen's Church, Ashburton	78/1329		15 June 1878	The Revd W. E. Paige

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).