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 943

District of Port Chalmers Quarter ending 31 March 1878 Registrar John Robert Monson

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

16 January 1878

David Alexander De Maus
Ann Cooper Buchan

David Alexander De Mans
Ann Cooper Buchan
💍 1878/769

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer

30 years
19

George Street, Port Chalmers
Harrington Street, Port Chalmers

10 years
7 years

At the House of Mr. Pickard, Harrington Street, Port Chalmers

78/762

Bridget Pickard formerly Buchan, her Mother

16 January 1878

Rev. William Keall, Wes

No	1
Date of Notice	16 January 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Alexander De Maus	Ann Cooper Buchan
BDM Match (98%)	David Alexander De Mans	Ann Cooper Buchan
	💍 1878/769
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer
Age	30 years	19
Dwelling Place	George Street, Port Chalmers	Harrington Street, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	10 years	7 years
Marriage Place	At the House of Mr. Pickard, Harrington Street, Port Chalmers
Folio	78/762
Consent	Bridget Pickard formerly Buchan, her Mother
Date of Certificate	16 January 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Keall, Wes

19 January 1878

James Burgess Hardwick
Margaret Burton

James George Hardwick
Margaret Burton
💍 1878/758

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

27 years
25

Princes Street, Dunedin
Grey Street, Port Chalmers

2 years
3 days

At the House of Mr. McDonald, Grey Street, Port Chalmers

78/760

19 January 1878

Rev. J. J. Lewis

No	2
Date of Notice	19 January 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Burgess Hardwick	Margaret Burton
BDM Match (89%)	James George Hardwick	Margaret Burton
	💍 1878/758
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	27 years	25
Dwelling Place	Princes Street, Dunedin	Grey Street, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	2 years	3 days
Marriage Place	At the House of Mr. McDonald, Grey Street, Port Chalmers
Folio	78/760
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lewis

22 January 1878

Henry Frederick Dench
Rebecca Jane Gebson

Henry Frederick Dench
Rebecca Jane Gibson
💍 1878/775

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk

24 years
27

Mansford Bay, Port Chalmers
Mansford Bay, Port Chalmers

7 years
8 days

At Holy Trinity Church, Port Chalmers

78/763

22 January 1878

Rev. Lorenzo Moore, M.A.

No	3
Date of Notice	22 January 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Frederick Dench	Rebecca Jane Gebson
BDM Match (97%)	Henry Frederick Dench	Rebecca Jane Gibson
	💍 1878/775
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk
Age	24 years	27
Dwelling Place	Mansford Bay, Port Chalmers	Mansford Bay, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	7 years	8 days
Marriage Place	At Holy Trinity Church, Port Chalmers
Folio	78/763
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1878
Officiating Minister	Rev. Lorenzo Moore, M.A.

12 February 1878

Herbert Bradbury
Amelia Annie Morgan

Herbert Bradbury
Amelia Annie Morgan
💍 1878/750

Bachelor
Spinster

Ships Steward

27
25

Ship "Piako", Port Chalmers
Immigration Depot, Dunedin

7 days
7 days

At the Registrars Office, Port Chalmers

78/759

12 February 1878

J. R. Monson, Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	12 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Bradbury	Amelia Annie Morgan
	💍 1878/750
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ships Steward
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Ship "Piako", Port Chalmers	Immigration Depot, Dunedin
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	At the Registrars Office, Port Chalmers
Folio	78/759
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1878
Officiating Minister	J. R. Monson, Registrar

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).