Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 276

District of Cambridge Quarter ending 30 September 1879

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
85	5 July 1879	William Taylor Osborne Mary Driscoll	William Caleb Osborne Mary Driscoll 💍 1879/1770	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servt	23 21	Cambridge Cambridge	5 years 8 weeks	at the house of Mrs Weyman, Cambridge	79/1935	5 July 1879	Rev. W. Evans
86	14 July 1879	John Anthony Ralph Susanna Lovell	John Anthony Ralph Susan Anne Lovell 💍 1879/2752	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Milliner	25 23	Huntly Hamilton	7 years 1 year	at The Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	79/3189	14 July 1879	Rev. W. Calder
87	21 July 1879	John Lewis Clarke Mary Legge	John Lewis Clarke Margaret Legg 💍 1879/2760	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Domestic Servt	22 25	Piako Piako	1½ years 5 months	at the Piako School Room, Piako	79/3121	21 July 1879	Rev. W. Calder
88	29 July 1879	Ambrose William Donnellan Brennan Jane Elizabeth Smith	Ambrose William Dounellan Brennan Jane Elizabeth Smith 💍 1879/1771	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Governess	21 23	Cambridge Cambridge	4 years 2 years	at the Roman Catholic Church, Cambridge	79/1965	29 July 1879	Rev. J. Golden
89	16 August 1879	Frank Jefcoate Brooks Mary Ann Evans	Frank Jefcoat Brooks Mary Ann Evans 💍 1879/1768	Widower Spinster	Bank Manager	33 33	Cambridge Cambridge	3½ years 1½ years	at the Presbyterian Church, Cambridge	79/1995	16 August 1879	Revd W. Evans
90	25 August 1879	Henry Kerr Anna Thompson	Henry Kerr Anna Thompson 💍 1879/2395	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	23 22	Cambridge Hamilton	4 years 12 years	at the Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton	79/2438	25 August 1879	Revd J. Golden
91	2 September 1879	Daniel Casey Julia Corrie	Daniel Casey Julia Currie 💍 1879/1766	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servt	27 29	Waitoa Waitoa	3 years 6 months	at the Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton	79/3120	2 September 1879	Revd J. Golden
92	5 September 1879	John Thomson Katherine McBride	John Thomson Catherine McBridy 💍 1879/2759 John Thomson Helen McDonald 💍 1879/2971 John Thomson Jane Coutts 💍 1879/2420	Bachelor Spinster	Bush Contractor Domestic Servt	23 21	Whatawhata Whatawhata	6 years 6 months	at the Office of the Registrar, Hamilton	79/3105	5 September 1879	B. C. Beale, Registrar
93	5 September 1879	Robert Kirkwood Jessie Hally	Robert Kirkwood Jessie Halley 💍 1879/1769	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	37 35	Cambridge Cambridge	14 years 9 years	at the house of Mrs Hally, Cambridge	79/1998	5 September 1879	Revd W. Evans

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).