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 0352

District of [illegible] Quarter ending [illegible]

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
8	8 January 1878	Edwin Valentine Meech Emma Wilton	Edwin Valentine Meech Emma Wilton 💍 1878/327	Bachelor Spinster	Seedsman	25 23	Wellington Wellington	life time 19 years	At the house of the Revd. J. Moir, Terrace, Wellington	78/258		8 January 1878	Revd. J. Moir, Pres
9	9 January 1878	John Taylor Jane Eileen Alice Wilmer McKenzie	John Taylor Jane Ellen Alice Wilmor McKenzie 💍 1878/373	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 19	Wellington Wellington	25 years 19 years	St Johns, Willis Street, Wellington	78/304	Thomas G. McKenzie, Father	9 January 1878	Revd. J. Patterson, Pres
10	9 January 1878	Frederick William Cato Sophy Burgep Mountree	Frederick William Cato Sophy Burgess Rowntree 💍 1878/350	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 22	Wellington Wellington	12 months 3 days	House of William Mountree, Karori Road, Newtown, Wellington	78/282		9 January 1878	Rev. Alex Reid, Act
11	11 January 1878	Thomas Taylor Florence Smith	Thomas Taylor Florence Mary Smith 💍 1878/313	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver	23 22	Wellington Wellington	2 years 18 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	78/264		11 January 1878	H. C. Wilmer, Registrar, Wellington
12	14 January 1878	William Nicholson Lucy Ann Griffiths	William Nicholson Lucy Ann Griffiths 💍 1878/303	Widower Spinster	Upholsterer	50 37	Wellington Wellington	18 years 3.5 years	St Peters, Wellington	78/232		14 January 1878	Revd. Archd. Stock, CofE
13	14 January 1878	Isaac Olsen Johanne Nathske	Isaac Olsen Johanne Nathske 💍 1878/314	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	36 18	Wellington Wellington	6 months 1 year	Registrars Office, Wellington	78/268		14 January 1878	H. C. Wilmer, Registrar, Wellington
14	15 January 1878	John Bettiell Mary Ann Tunney	John Bethell Mary Ann Tinney 💍 1878/374 John Pettigrew Mary Ann Lyall 💍 1878/3396 John Barber Mary Ann Fisher 💍 1878/1031 John Twidle Mary Ann Slater 💍 1878/906	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	23 26	Wellington Wellington	3.5 years 10 months	House of Mrs Tunney, Sydney Street, Wellington	78/305		15 January 1878	Revd. J. Patterson, Pres
15	18 January 1878	Joseph Vivian Georgemma Waters	Joseph Vivian Georgiemma Waters 💍 1878/307	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	33 23	Wellington Wellington	1 year 23 years	House of Mrs Waters, Dixon Street, Wellington	78/261		18 January 1878	Revd. Alex Reid, Act

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).