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 940

District of Port Chalmers 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
23	8 October 1879	William John Waters Maggie McCarney	William John Waters Maggie McCamey 💍 1879/2595	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	28 years 23 do	George Street, Port Chalmers Magnetic Street, Port Chalmers	29 years 14 days	at Holy Trinity Church	79/2945		8 October 1879	Revd. F. J. Sotham
24	21 October 1879	Clinton Anderson Julia Gallagher	Anton Anderson Julia Galagher 💍 1879/3287	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Book	27 years 23 do	Grey Street, Port Chalmers Andersons Bay	7½ years 7 do	at King Church	79/2914		21 October 1879	Revd. F. L. Stuart
25	27 October 1879	Samuel Stone Alice Charles	Samuel Stone Alice Charls 💍 1879/2597	Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman Dressmaker	29 years 28 years	Mansfords Bay, Port Chalmers do do	20 years 16 months	at the House of Mr. Mansford, Mansford Bay	79/2944		27 October 1879	Revd. Wm. Findley, Prim
26	4 November 1879	John Cook Jessie Guild Paton	John Cook Jessie Guild Paton 💍 1879/2918	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 years 20 do	Imperial Hotel, Dunedin Daly Street, Port Chalmers	1 year 15 do	at the House of Capt. J. Paton, Daly Street	79/3333	John Paton, Father	4 November 1879	Revd. Wm. Johnstone M.A.
27	25 November 1879	Duncan McGregor Margaret Potter	Duncan McGregor Margaret Potter 💍 1879/2577	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 years 21 do	George Street, Port Chalmers North Harbor and Blueskin District	3 years 12 do	at the House of Mr. Wm. Potter, North Harbor	79/2943		25 November 1879	Revd. F. L. Stuart
28	3 December 1879	William John Elliott Grace Paterson	William John Elliott Grace Paterson 💍 1879/2596	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Housekeeper	32 years 29 do	Purakanui do do	10 months 14 years	at Holy Trinity Church	79/2946		3 December 1879	Revd. F. J. Sotham
29	9 December 1879	Sidney Ford Elizabeth Ann Hovell	Sidney Wood Elizabeth Ann Hovell 💍 1879/2588	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason	39 years 33 do	George Street, Port Chalmers Off George Street, Port Chalmers	7 months 2 do	at the House of Mr. Sam Cornish, Off George Street	79/2944		9 December 1879	Revd. Wm. Findley, Pres
30	10 December 1879	William Skinner Jane Millan	William Skinner Jane Millar 💍 1879/2919	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	39 years 28 do	Beach Street, Port Chalmers Saring Street, Port Chalmers	8 years 14 years	at the House of Mr. Jos [illegible]	79/3334		10 December 1879	Revd. Wm. Johnstone M.A.

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).