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 307

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 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
61	16 August 1879	Henry Wright Annie Wilson	Henry Halford Wright Annie Wilson 💍 1879/1815	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 22	Wanganui Wanganui	15 months 17 months	In the residence of Mr. G. Adams	79/1820		16 August 1879	William Lee
62	25 August 1879	Francis Wall Jane Partridge	Francis Wall Jane Partridge 💍 1879/1816	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	Wanganui Wanganui	22 years 10 months	In the Wesleyan Church		See marginal authority for consent	25 August 1879	William Lee
63	26 August 1879	Charles Astley Mary Ann Temple	Charles Astley Mary Ann Spurdle 💍 1879/1818	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 21	Wanganui Wanganui	15 months 6 years	In the residence of Mr. J. Wallace	79/1823		26 August 1879	William Lee
64	27 August 1879	William Allen Mary Frost	William Allen Mary Frost 💍 1879/1817	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 18	Marton Wanganui	10 years 3 months	Residence Wanganui	79/1827	Father	27 August 1879	William Lee
65	1 September 1879	James Stent Catherine Blair	James Stent Catherine Blair 💍 1879/1810	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	42 31	Wanganui Wanganui	4 months 3 years	In the Presbyterian Church	79/1828		1 September 1879	James Treadwell
66	4 September 1879	Edwin Sill Allsworth Eliza Ann Botting	Edwin Gill Allsworth Eliza Ann Bobin 💍 1879/1819	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	31 35	Wanganui Wanganui	3 years 8 years	In the Wesleyan Church	79/1824		4 September 1879	William Lee
67	6 September 1879	James Grey Jessie Williams	James Grey Jessie Williams 💍 1879/1786	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	40 32	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 4 years	In the Registrar of Marriages Office, Wanganui	79/1825		6 September 1879	G. H. Horne, Registrar
68	6 September 1879	Francis Geo. Harcourt Catherine Hatchett		Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	32 25	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months 10 days	In the Presbyterian Church	79/1828		6 September 1879	E. L. Tudor
69	8 September 1879	Matthew Quinlan Mary Haughnessy		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 16	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui		Thomas Quinlan, Father	8 September 1879	G. H. Horne, Registrar
70	30 September 1879	Frederick Brown Elizabeth Ann Martin	Frederick Brown Eliza Ann Martin 💍 1879/2871	Bachelor Widow	Architect	38 25	Wanganui Wanganui	16 months 2 years	In the Wesleyan Parsonage	79/1826		30 September 1879	William Lee
71	30 September 1879	John Wickstead Sarah Shaw	John Wickstead Sarah Shaw 💍 1879/1787	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	32 19	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 4 years	In the Registrar's Office	79/1827	See marginal authority for consent	30 September 1879	G. H. Horne, Registrar

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).