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 234

District of Thames 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
797	31 October 1878	George Holsworthy Agnes Wilson	George Clotworthy Agnes Wilson 💍 1878/2482	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper Waitress	40 years 21 years	Tairua Albert St, Thames	11 years 3 months	In the Presbyterian Church, Thames	78/2521		31st Oct 1878	Rev. S.J. Neill, Presbyterian Minister
798	19 November 1878	Thomas Williams Ellen Walker	Thomas Williams Ellen Walker 💍 1878/2478	Bachelor Spinster	Miner No profession	25 years 21 years	Sandes St, Waitangi Kauaeranga, Grey Street, Hope Street, Road	9 years 9 years	At residence of the Rev. R.S. Bunn, The Terrace, Tape Creek Road	78/2517		19th Nov 1878	Rev. R.S. Bunn, Wesleyan Minister
799	21 November 1878	Charles Rolton Mary Phillips Humphries	Charles Rolton Mary P Humphries 💍 1878/2481	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman No profession	22 years 19 years	Mackay St, Thames Eyre St, Thames	9 years 4 years	At dwelling house occupied by Mr Peter Maxwell, Beach Road, Thames	78/2520	George Humphries, father of bride	23rd Nov 1878	Rev. S.J. Neill, Presbyterian Minister
800	22 November 1878	Thomas Clarke Ursula Taylor	Thomas Clarke Ursula Taylor 💍 1878/2480	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer No profession	25 years 20 years	Tararu Punga Flat	10 years 9 years	Registrar's Office, Thames	78/2519	Richard Taylor, bride's father	22nd Nov 1878	Alexander de Lacey, Potterton (Registrar)
801	26 November 1878	James Haigh Elizabeth Farrell	James Sleigh Elizabeth Farrell 💍 1878/2477	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker No profession	28 years 28 years	Pollend St, Shortland Potter St, Shortland	3 years 3 months	Dwelling house of Mr Haigh, situate in Polleston St, Thames	78/2516		26th Nov 1878	Rev. R. Laishley, Congregational Minister
802	4 December 1878	George Mutton Mary Ann Crisp	George Mutton Mary Ann Crisp 💍 1878/2507	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	27 years 19 years	Rolleston Street, Waitangi Tararu Road, Thames	3.5 years 10 years	Dwelling house of Mr William Crisp, Tararua Road, Thames	78/2525	William Crisp, father of bride	4th Dec 1878	Rev. John Nixon, Primitive Methodist Minister

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).