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 302

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	2 January 1879	John Tyfer Charlotte Amis	John Fyfe Charlotte Harris 💍 1879/275 John Huffam Charlotte Ayland 💍 1879/1389	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	40 25	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 20 years	Wesleyan Church	79/164		2 January 1879	William Lee
2	3 January 1879	Hy. Alex. Lamb Emma T. Littlewood	Henry Alexander Lamb Emma Teresa Littlewood 💍 1879/1801	Bachelor Spinster	Station Master	21 19	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months 6 years	English Church	79/187	R. W. Littlewood, father	3 January 1879	T. L. Tudor
3	7 January 1879	Gregor McGregor Te Pura	Gregor McGregor Te Pura Manihera 💍 1879/1029	Bachelor Spinster	P. O. Clerk	21 23	Wanganui Wanganui	21 years 23 years	Private residence of Rev. G. Stannard, Wanganui			7 January 1879	George Stannard
4	9 January 1879	Joseph Stith Sarah A. Richardson	Joseph Stitt Sarah Ann Richardson 💍 1879/311 Joseph Rudd Mary Anne Richardson 💍 1880/3085	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	21 19	Wanganui Wanganui	21 years 19 years	Roman Catholic	79/166	John Richardson, father	9 January 1879	C. H. Kirk
5	10 January 1879	John Clutson Emma Harpin	John Chubbin Emma Harper 💍 1879/276	Widower Widow	Farmer	52 39	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 4 days	Residence of W. Lee, Wanganui	79/168		10 January 1879	William Lee
6	15 January 1879	P. A. O'Sullivan Kate Brown	Patrick Ambrose O'Sullivan Kate Brown 💍 1879/312	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	27 21	Wanganui Wanganui	3 years 5 years	Church, Wanganui	79/181		15 January 1879	C. H. Kirk
7	20 January 1879	J. E. S. Marshall Alice J. Jakeman	James Edwin Schooler Marshall Alice Jane Jakeman 💍 1879/3343	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	25 24	Wanganui Wanganui	3 1/2 years 3 years	English Church	79/182		20 January 1879	T. L. Tudor
8	23 January 1879	Robert Law Jane Hogg	Robert Law Jane Hogg 💍 1879/2463	Widower Spinster	Shipwright	39 29	Wanganui Wanganui	14 years 4 years	Residence of W. York, Wanganui	79/248		23 January 1879	Geo. Stannard
9	25 January 1879	Timothy Johnson Janet Hugher	Timothy Donovan Janet Hughes 💍 1879/272	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Wanganui Wanganui	7 days 7 weeks	Registrar's Office	79/164		25 January 1879	G. W. Noon
10	31 January 1879	Rich Dreyer Mary Reid	Frederick Dreyer Mary Reid 💍 1879/313	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	24 33	Wanganui Wanganui	9 months 20 years	Roman Catholic Church	79/182		31 January 1879	C. H. Kirk
11	4 February 1879	Joseph Abbott Mary Daniell	Joseph Abbott Mary Daniell 💍 1879/283	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	24 28	Wanganui Daniell Mount Drive	4 months 1 year	Residence of Mr. Daniell	79/144		4 February 1879	James Tradwell
12	4 February 1879	H. St. John Christie Olive E. Owen	Henry St John Christopher Olive Elizabeth Owen 💍 1879/1800	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 25	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 20 years	English Church	79/182		4 February 1879	F. L. Tudor
13	4 February 1879	Samuel Austin Alice Arnold	Samuel Austin Alice Arnold 💍 1879/308	Widower Spinster	Labourer	47 26	Wanganui Wanganui	20 years 12 months	Wanganui	79/144		4 February 1879	James Tradwell
14	5 February 1879	Daniel Jones Annie Senior	Daniel Jones Annie Scrivener 💍 1879/279	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 21	Wanganui Wanganui	24 years 21 years	Residence of Thomas Senior, Wanganui	79/140		5 February 1879	William Lee
15	6 February 1879	Arthur Wallace Ellen Boyle	Arthur Wallace Ellen Boyle 💍 1879/314	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	21 19	Wanganui Wanganui	24 years 11 years	Roman Catholic Church	79/186	Henry Boyle, father	6 February 1879	C. H. Kirk
16	11 February 1879	Alfred Smith Mary Baldrin	Alfred Smith Mary Baldwin 💍 1879/291	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 19	Wanganui Wanganui	14 days 7 days	Residence of Rev. James Tradwell, Wanganui	79/174	James Baldrin, father	11 February 1879	James Tradwell
17	11 February 1879	James Smith Lucy Burniston	James Smith Lucy Burniston 💍 1879/302	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	29 25	Wanganui Wanganui	12 months 3 months	Empire Hotel	79/176		11 February 1879	James Tradwell

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).