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 775

District of Temuka 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
23	9 April 1878	George Geddes Agnes Thomson	George Geddes Agnes Thomson 💍 1878/2904	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 21	Temuka Temuka	3 Days 3 years	Boyd Thomas Residence	78/2949		9 April 1878	Rev G. Barclay, Pres
24	23 April 1878	Charles Nicholas Jane Chapman	Nicolas Charles Nicholas Jane Chapman 💍 1878/2907	Bachelor Spinster	Stable Keeper	31 18	Temuka Temuka	3 years 6 years	St Saviours Church	78/2951		24 April 1878	Rev James Preston, CofE
25	29 April 1878	Tamachi Taorange Teneffai Varatthata		Bachelor Widow	Labourer	40 35	Temuka Temuka	23 years 35 years	Registrars Office	78/3275		29 April 1878	R. M. Buchanan, Regr
26	7 May 1878	John Braddick Rebecca Eagle	John Braddick Rebecca Eagle 💍 1878/2906	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 23	Rangatira Temuka	8 years 3 years	St Saviours Church	78/2950		7 May 1878	Rev James Preston, CofE
27	22 May 1878	David Scannell Ellen Foley	Daniel Scannel Ellen Foley 💍 1878/2908	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Temuka Temuka	7 years 7 years	McConnell Residence	78/2952	Father Le Janvier	22 May 1878	[illegible]
28	30 May 1878	Thomas Bullock Jessie Jones	Thomas Bullick Jessie Jones 💍 1878/2903	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	26 19	Temuka Temuka	3 years 3 months	Presbyterian Manse	78/2948	Mrs Cook, Guardian	30 May 1878	Rev Geo. Barclay, Pres
29	12 June 1878	Wm. Henry Williams Elizabeth Collins	William H Williams Elizabeth Collins 💍 1878/2909	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	25 18	Temuka Temuka	9 months 14 years	Rev Collins Residence	78/2953	Mary Collins, mother	12 June 1878	Rev Harper, Pres
30	12 June 1878	Geo. Joseph Levens Annie Walker	George Joseph Levens Annie Walker 💍 1878/2897	Bachelor Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon	30 21	Temuka Temuka	16 years 2 years	R.M. Walker Residence	78/2942		12 June 1878	Rev James Preston, CofE

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).