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 949

District of Port Chalmers 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
12	29 October 1878	William Stewart Janet Ramsay Bennet Johnston	William Stewart Janet R B Thomson 💍 1878/3253	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason	27 years 28 years	Sawyers Bay near Port Chalmers Sawyers Bay near Port Chalmers	18 months 27 years	House of Wm Johnston, Galbreath	78/1311		1878 October 29	Rev. Wm Johnston, Pres
13	31 October 1878	Robert Millar Margaret Robertson	Robert Miller Margaret Robertson 💍 1878/3254 Robert Brown Margeret Robertson 💍 1878/3300 William Robert McDonell Margaret Robertson 💍 1878/3133 James Muirhead Margaret Robertson 💍 1878/744	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	35 years 23 years	Mount Pleasant near Port Chalmers Sawyers Bay near Port Chalmers	18 years 18 years	House of Wm Robertson	78/1312		1878 October 31	Rev. Wm Johnston, Pres
14	6 December 1878	Robert Clarke Myria Annonia Hellenor Forder	Robert Yorke Myrria Ammenia Hellenor Forder 💍 1878/3083	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 years 23 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	3 days 3 days	Mr. Neille's House	78/129		1878 Dec 8	Rev. James Maxwell, Congre
15	9 December 1878	George Morris Mary Ann Wilson	George Morris Mary Ann Wilson 💍 1878/3117	Widower Spinster	Gardener	50 years 32 years	Dunedin Port Chalmers	3 Weeks 3 Weeks	Registrars Office, Dunedin	78/3140		1878 Dec 9	Registrar, Port Chalmers, J. Downes
16	13 December 1878	Alexander Young Gwendolyne [illegible] Hills	Alexander Young Susan Elizabeth Wells 💍 1878/3084	Bachelor Widow	Foreman	30 years 36 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	9 years 9 years	Dr. Bills House	78/3130		1878 Dec 13	Rev. James Maxwell, Congre
17	23 December 1878	Francis Sean Elizabeth Muir		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	25 years 19 years	George Street, Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	8 years 9 years	House of Mr. Muir	78/3133	William Muir, Father	1878 Dec 23	Rev. Wm Johnston, Pres
18	28 December 1878	John Muir Annie Robertson	John Clunie Annie Isboster Robertson 💍 1878/3085	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner Teacher	31 years 23 years	Port Chalmers Flagstaff Hill, Port Chalmers	3 months 1 year	House of Capt Robertson	78/3131		1878 Dec 28	Rev. James Maxwell, Congre

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).