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 304

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 June 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
30	1 April 1879	Henry Lundberg Louisa Moore	Henry Lundberg Louisa Moon 💍 1879/1046	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	27 19	Wanganui Wanganui	1 year 19 years	In the residence of Timothy Moore, Wanganui	79/1003	Timothy Moore, father	1 April 1879	William Lee
31	1 April 1879	Geo. Thos. Buckley Celia F. Atkinson	G T Buckley C F Atkinson 💍 1879/3387	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 17	Maxwelltown Hukimaru	7 months 8 months	In the residence of J. James Atkinson, Hukimaru	79/2336	James Atkinson, father	1 April 1879	C. H. Kirk
32	3 April 1879	John Taylor Alice W. Kent	John Taylor Alice Willis Kemp 💍 1879/1017 John Taylor Eliza Tucker 💍 1879/250	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Fitter	31 23	Wanganui Wanganui	8 years 3 years	Church, Wanganui	79/942		3 April 1879	James Treadwell
33	3 April 1879	Samuel James Agnes Ferris	Samuel James Agnes Ferry 💍 1879/1045	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 20	Wanganui Wanganui	12 years 19 years	Vincent, Wanganui	79/1002		3 April 1879	William Lee
34	3 April 1879	Walter Beniamin Mary Sweeney		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Labourer	20 22	Kai-iwi Wanganui	5 years 23 years	In the Registrar's Office, Wanganui	79/996	Property of the Crown, and therefore no consent required	3 April 1879	F. H. Woon
35	12 April 1879	Joseph Smith Marion C. Smith		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 22	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 9 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	79/997		12 April 1879	William Lee
36	22 April 1879	Gregor McGregor Euphemia Marshall	Gregor McGregor Te Pura Manihera 💍 1879/1029	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 23	Wanganui Wanganui	21 years 8 years	In the office of the Registrar, Wanganui	79/985		22 April 1879	F. H. Woon
37	23 April 1879	Lawrence Irvine Ann Jane Irvine	Lawrence Irvine Ann Jane Irvine 💍 1879/1018	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 28	Wanganui Wanganui	15 years 6 years	In the residence of A. Irvine, Wanganui	79/995		23 April 1879	James Treadwell
38	8 May 1879	Thomas Hogan Bridget Donovan	Thomas Hogan Bridget Donovan 💍 1879/1024	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	33 23	Wanganui Wanganui	10 years 15 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	79/984		8 May 1879	C. H. Kirk
39	13 May 1879	Robert Crichton Sarah Barlow	Robert Crichton Sarah Barrow 💍 1879/1019	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 18	Wanganui Wanganui	20 years 15 years	In the residence of R. Crichton, Wanganui	79/996		13 May 1879	F. H. Woon
40	13 May 1879	Harry Morrill Mary Farley	Harry Morrell Mary Farley 💍 1879/1030	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 23	Wanganui Wanganui	6 weeks 9 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	79/984		13 May 1879	F. H. Woon
41	27 May 1879	John Lethbridge Annie Macdonald	John Perry Lethbridge Annie McDonald 💍 1879/2464	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 24	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 7 years	In the house of J. McDonald, Wanganui	79/985		27 May 1879	James Treadwell

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).