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 481

District of Wairau 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
6	18 April 1879	Thomas Ellow Hilley Louisa Jane Bollins	Thomas Ellor Kiley Louisa Jane Collins 💍 1879/1195	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Broker	31 years 17 years	Blenheim Blenheim	8 years 9 years	Willow Cottage, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	79/1116	Ann Bollins, mother	18 April 1879	J. Butt
7	10 May 1879	Denis Glacken Bridget Therese McCarthy	Denis Glackan Bridget Theresa McCarthy 💍 1879/1180	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	29 years 26 years	Do Do	6 months 3 days	Catholic Church, Blenheim	79/1139		10 May 1879	Rev. A. M. Sauzeau
8	14 May 1879	Alexander Brace Margaret Herd	Alexander Craven Margaret Herd 💍 1879/1187	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	23 years 18 years	Grove Town Do	4 years 11 years	The House of Alexander Herd, Grove Town	79/1140	Alexander Herd, father	14 May 1879	J. Butt
9	15 May 1879	Philip Rush Rose Ellen Potter	Philip Rush Rose Ellen Potter 💍 1879/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 years 16 years	Spring Creek Do	10 years 1 year	House of Philip Rush, Spring Creek	79/1143	Robert Potter, father	15 May 1879	Rev. John Shirriffes
10	16 May 1879	William Edward Iniles Margaret Hornby	William Edwan Miles Margaret Hornby 💍 1879/2977	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	23 years 21 years	Blenheim Picton	5 months 8 years	House of John Hornby, Mount Pleasant, Picton	79/1135		16 May 1879	Rev. A. M. Sauzeau
11	20 May 1879	John Buckman Henrietta Matilda Cluck	John Buckman Henrietta Matilda Chuck 💍 1879/1183	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	21 years 18 years	Blenheim Do	4 years 16 years	House of Bittical Cluck, Blenheim	79/1141	Bittical Cluck, mother	20 May 1879	Rev. T. G. Carr
12	5 June 1879	Charles Mostyn Humphreys Sarah Jane Wilkinson	Charles Mostyn Humffreys Sarah Jane Wilkinson 💍 1879/1184	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	21 years 21 years	Spring Creek Blenheim	21 years 9 months	House of William Booker, Blenheim	79/1142		5 June 1879	Rev. G. Shirriffes

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).