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 0356

District of [illegible] Quarter ending [illegible]

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

6 February 1878

Nicholas Wilson
Maria Theresa Johnston

Nicholas Nelson
Maria Theresa Johnston
💍 1878/305

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Dressmaker

27
17

Wellington
do

2 years
2 years

at House of William Johnston - Tory Street

78/1259

W Johnston, Father

6 February 1878

Revd. J. Moir, Pres

No	37
Date of Notice	6 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nicholas Wilson	Maria Theresa Johnston
BDM Match (93%)	Nicholas Nelson	Maria Theresa Johnston
	💍 1878/305
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Dressmaker
Age	27	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	at House of William Johnston - Tory Street
Folio	78/1259
Consent	W Johnston, Father
Date of Certificate	6 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Revd. J. Moir, Pres

6 February 1878

John Jackson
Edith Naomi Mason

John Jackson
Edith Naomi Mason
💍 1878/309

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

27
22

do
do

27 years
22 years

House of John Jackson, Cuba Street

78/1263

6 February 1878

Revd. A. Reid, Pres

No	38
Date of Notice	6 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Jackson	Edith Naomi Mason
	💍 1878/309
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	27 years	22 years
Marriage Place	House of John Jackson, Cuba Street
Folio	78/1263
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Revd. A. Reid, Pres

7 February 1878

Benjamin Robert Ackroyd
Catherine Elizabeth Rawson

Benjamin Robert Ackroyd
Catherine Elizabeth Rawson
💍 1878/328

Bachelor
Spinster

Boiler Maker

30
28

do
do

7 days
5 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

78/1274

7 February 1878

C.H. S. Nicholls, Deputy Registrar, Wellington

No	39
Date of Notice	7 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benjamin Robert Ackroyd	Catherine Elizabeth Rawson
	💍 1878/328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boiler Maker
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	7 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	78/1274
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 February 1878
Officiating Minister	C.H. S. Nicholls, Deputy Registrar, Wellington

8 February 1878

Alexander Brown Croskerry
Mary Ann Christina Thomson

Alexander Brown Croskey
Mary Anne Mortimer Thomson
💍 1878/376

Bachelor
Spinster

Comn. Agent

40
28

do
do

7 years
2 years

At Mr. Croskerry's House, Wordsworth Street, Wellington

78/1307

8 February 1878

Revd. J. Paterson, Pres

No	40
Date of Notice	8 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Brown Croskerry	Mary Ann Christina Thomson
BDM Match (81%)	Alexander Brown Croskey	Mary Anne Mortimer Thomson
	💍 1878/376
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Comn. Agent
Age	40	28
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	7 years	2 years
Marriage Place	At Mr. Croskerry's House, Wordsworth Street, Wellington
Folio	78/1307
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Revd. J. Paterson, Pres

11 February 1878

William Francis Barraud
Marion Sarah Amelia Wright

William Francis Barraud
Marion Sarah Amelia Wright
💍 1878/295

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist

28
25

do
do

28 years
25 years

St. Paul's Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

78/1347

11 February 1878

Revd. B. W. Harvey, CofE

No	41
Date of Notice	11 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Barraud	Marion Sarah Amelia Wright
	💍 1878/295
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist
Age	28	25
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	28 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Cathedral, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Folio	78/1347
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 February 1878
Officiating Minister	Revd. B. W. Harvey, CofE

12 February 1878

John Holman Bates
Amelia Annie Swift

John Holman Bates
Amelia Annie Swift
💍 1878/339

Bachelor
Spinster

Ship Carpenter

30
24

do
do

2 years
3 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

78/1375

13 February 1878

C.H. S. Nicholls, Deputy Registrar, Wellington

No	42
Date of Notice	12 February 1878
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Holman Bates	Amelia Annie Swift
	💍 1878/339
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ship Carpenter
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	2 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	78/1375
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1878
Officiating Minister	C.H. S. Nicholls, Deputy Registrar, Wellington

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).