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 620

District of Rangiora 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
283	1 April 1879	Bartholomew Duffell Clara Burrell	Bartholomew Duffell Clara Burrell 💍 1879/1383	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	21 years 23 years	Sefton Rangiora Fernside	15 years 2 years	Church of England Ashley	79/1370		10 April 1879	Rev. A. C. Wright
284	9 April 1879	John George Lawrence Scott Agnes Robertson	John George Lawrence Scott Agnes Robinson 💍 1879/1257	Widower Spinster	Teacher Teacher	28 years 20 years	Rangiora Rangiora	2 years 18 years	House of John Robertson	79/1217	John Robertson, Father	9 April 1879	Rev. C. Dallaston
285	21 April 1879	William Bloomfield Elizabeth Seed	William Bloomfield Elizabeth Seed 💍 1879/1255	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer not any	22 years 22 years	Couldbrook Rangiora	19 years 12 years	Free Methodist Church Rangiora	79/1216		21 April 1879	Rev. Thomas Hodgson, Minister
286	25 April 1879	Charles Jackson Hannah Closter	Charles Jackson Hannah Clark 💍 1879/1364	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	26 years 24 years	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 1 year	Church of England Fernside	79/1328		25 April 1879	Rev. A. C. Wright
287	3 May 1879	Thomas Joseph Potteryman Mary Elizabeth Humphries	Thomas Joseph Nottingham Mary Elizabeth Humphries 💍 1879/1258	Bachelor Spinster	Painter not any	25 years 17 years	Rangiora Rangiora	4 years 15 years	Wesleyan Church Rangiora	79/1218	Frank Humphries, Father	3 May 1879	Rev. Wm. Lawrell
288	13 May 1879	Charles Jones Ellen Smith	Charles Jones Ellen Smith 💍 1879/2979	Bachelor Spinster	Basketmaker Dressmaker	24 years 22 years	Rangiora Rangiora	3 years 20 years	Office of Registrar	79/1215		13 May 1879	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
289	14 May 1879	Joseph Frost Minnie Fry	Joseph Frost Minnie Try 💍 1879/1362	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	21 years 18 years	Rangiora Rangiora	18 years 2 years	House of Wm. Moore	79/1326	Wm. Moore, Uncle & Guardian	14 May 1879	Rev. F. R. Inwood
290	16 June 1879	Samuel Kingsbury Sarah Dixon	Samuel Kingsbury Sarah Dixon 💍 1879/1354 Henry Justin Jury Sarah Dixon 💍 1880/3026	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	26 years 26 years	Ashley Ashley Grove	4 days 12 years	Church of England Ashley	79/1324		16 June 1879	Rev. A. C. Wright

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).