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 390

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
240	21 December 1879	James Erasmus Cunliffe Ada Mahala Power formerly Jenner	John Erasmus Cunliffe Ada Mahala Lower 💍 1879/3011	Bachelor Widow	Baker	29 26	Johnsonville Wellington	12 months 25 years	House of Rev. D. Moir	79/2509		21 December 1879	Jno Moir, Pres
241	24 December 1879	Robinson Broadley Annie Winifred Hughes	Robinson Broadbent Hannah Winifred Hughes 💍 1879/2499	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	23 20	Wellington Wellington	2 years Life	Registrars office	79/2545		24 December 1879	Registrar
242	24 December 1879	William Munro Catherine McKenzie	William Munro Catherine McKenzie 💍 1879/2498	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	39 26	Wellington Wellington	4 years 14 days	Registrars office	79/2544		24 December 1879	Registrar
243	24 December 1879	John Graham Mack Charlotte Annie Heskill	John Graham Mackay Charlotte Annie Haskell 💍 1879/2515	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Nurse	35 32	Wellington Wellington	8 months 2 years	House of Rev. I. Paterson	79/2537		24 December 1879	James Paterson, Pres
244	28 December 1879	Clement Watson Ruth Beresford	Clement Watson Ruth Beresford 💍 1879/2490	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolteacher Schoolteacher	24 25	Wellington Wellington	16 months 2 years	St Peters	79/2571		28 December 1879	Archdeacon Stock, C of E
245	29 December 1879	Thomas Cotter Emma Ann Haybittle	Thomas Cotter Emma Ann Haybittle 💍 1879/2459	Widower Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	20 years 4 years	St Pauls	79/2503		29 December 1879	B.N. Harvey, C of E
246	31 December 1879	James Hamilton Annie Booked	James Hamilton Annie Brookes 💍 1879/3049 James Hamilton Jean Kirkwood 💍 1879/2104	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	26 26	Wellington Wellington	1 month 3 days	House of Rev. W.H. Meek	79/2583		31 December 1879	W.H. Meek, Congl
263	4 October 1879	Wesley Johnston Christina Helen Heath	Wesley Johnston Christina Helen Heath 💍 1879/3022	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 24	Wellington Wellington	3 years 12 days	House of Jas Campbell	79/2519		17 October 1879	W. Kirk, Pres
265	18 December 1879	Francis Henry Guilford Frances Hall	Francis Henry Guilford Frances Hall 💍 1879/2486	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Bookbinder	21 22	Wellington Wellington	6 years 10 years	House of W. Hall	79/2501		18 December 1879	N.S. Palmer, Pres
266	20 December 1879	William Redmond Alice Mary Redring	William Redwood Alice May Aldridge 💍 1879/3010	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	38 28	Wellington Wellington	10 years 5 years	House of Wm Scott	79/2568		20 December 1879	John Moir, Pres
268	20 December 1879	Oliver Laing Robinson Lucy Cellars Smith	Oliver Laing Robertson Rosella Smith 💍 1879/3054	Bachelor Widow	Carrier	21 21	Wellington Wellington	4 days 3 Months	House of Rev D. Dutton	79/2588		20 December 1879	D. Dutton, Pres
269	21 December 1879	Richard Birch Margaret Dixon	Richard Birch Margaret Dixon 💍 1879/2458	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	21 17	Wellington Wellington	4 months 2 years	St Pauls	79/2508	Mother	21 December 1879	B.N. Harvey, C of E

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).