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 738

District of Ashburton 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
108	19 February 1879	Harry Longueville Snow Emily Jaoven	Harry Longueville Snow Emily Jaouen 💍 1879/1377	Bachelor Spinster	Store-Keeper	20 years 18 years	Barrhill Barrhill	5 months 1 year	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	79/1363	Augustus Jaoven, father	4 April 1879	J. Ward, Registrar
112	10 April 1879	Alexander Davidson Mary Quinlan	Alexander Davidson Mary Quinlan 💍 1879/1370	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 years 21 years	Longbeach Ashburton	2 1/2 years 8 months	Catholic Church	79/1358	R. Q.	10 April 1879	Revd. J. C. Chervier
113	19 April 1879	Thomas Scott Johnston Margaret Lambie	Thomas Scott Johnston Margaret Lambie 💍 1879/1382	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 16 years	Mount Somers Mount Somers	15 years 15 years	Private dwelling house of George Lambie at Mt Somers	79/1369	George Lambie, Father	19 April 1879	Revd. H. B. Burnett
114	19 April 1879	John William Brattree Elizabeth M'Taggart	John William Crabtree Elizabeth McTaggart 💍 1879/1376	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer and Baker Machinist	21 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	79/1364		19 April 1879	J. Ward, Registrar
115	19 April 1879	Charles Miller Mary Ann Watts	Charles Miller Mary Ann Watts 💍 1879/1381 Charles Moeller Cecilia Watts 💍 1879/961	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 18 years	Milgrove Farm, Rangitata Rangitata	11 months 8 months	Private dwelling house of Charles Miller at Milgrove Farm, Rangitata	79/1368	H. B. Burnett
116	21 April 1879	Daniel O'Connor Honora Sullivan	Daniel O'Connor Honora Sullivan 💍 1879/1371	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 years 21 years	Hinds Ashburton	3 1/2 years 14 months	Catholic Church	79/1359		21 April 1879	Revd. J. C. Chervier
117	3 May 1879	William Palmer Mary Down	William Palmer Mary Anne Down 💍 1879/1380	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	21 years 22 years	Ashburton Ashburton	2 years 2 years	St. Stephen's Church	79/1365		3 May 1879	Revd. W. S. Paige
118	5 May 1879	John Frederick Santon Georgina Lambert Bond	John Frederick Santon Georgina Lambert Bond 💍 1879/1378	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 years 26 years	Tinwald Tinwald	3 months 1 month	St. Stephen's Church	79/1366		5 May 1879	Revd. W. S. Paige
119	6 May 1879	William Dakers Martha Ann Anderson	William Dakers Martha Ann Anderson 💍 1879/1369 William Roberts Mary Anderson 💍 1879/2746	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	27 years 20 years	Waterton Waterton	2 years 2 years	Presbyterian Manse	79/1357	Samuel Anderson, father	6 May 1879	Revd. H. B. Burnett

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).