Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 606

District of Rangiora Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
300	6 January 1880	John McShane Jane Banks	John McIntyre Jane Banks 💍 1880/659	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher not any	21 18	Fernside Ashley	14 days 12 yrs	House of James Banks, Ashley	80/1/305	James Banks, father	7 January 1880	Rev. R. Tout
301	19 January 1880	Joseph Yorke Sarah Ann Seddon	Joseph Ford Sarah Ann Seddons 💍 1880/1077 Joseph Johnston Sarah Ann Stephens 💍 1880/3168	Widower Widow	Farmer not any	64 50	Rangiora Rangiora	15 yrs 15 yrs	Office of Registrar	80/1/443		19 January 1880	A. Hummerston Registrar
302	16 February 1880	Alfred Debenham Mary Elizabeth Wishart	Alfred Derbidge Margaret Elizabeth Wishart 💍 1880/1019	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer not any	23 21	Rangiora Church/River	5 yrs 6 yrs	Church of Engd Rangiora	80/1/508		16 February 1880	Rev. R.W. Dudley
303	9 March 1880	Robert Spencer Elizabeth Owen	Robert Spencer Turner Elizabeth Owen 💍 1880/994	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith not any	26 18	Wood End Southbrook	10 yrs 15 yrs	House of Conrad Geffken	80/1/559	Conrad Geffken (uncle & step father)	9 March 1880	Rev. Wm. Gunnell
304	11 March 1880	Michael Ahern Mary Jane Shorter	Michael Ahern Mary Jane Short 💍 1880/1080	Widower Spinster	Carpenter not any	45 22	Ashley Rangiora	2 yrs 3 days	Office of Registrar	80/1/446		11 March 1880	A. Hummerston Registrar
305	18 March 1880	Benjamin Archer Mary Masefield		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dom. Servant	22 23	Southbrook Rangiora	20 yrs 3 yrs	Office of Registrar	80/1/445		18 March 1880	A. Hummerston Registrar
306	25 March 1880	George Wm. Luxton Ellen Barber	George Windson Luxton Ellen Barbour 💍 1880/1406	Bachelor Spinster	Farming not any	26 24	Rangiora Rangiora	20 yrs 4 yrs	Church of England Rangiora	80/1/579		25 March 1880	Rev. W. Dudley
307	25 March 1880	Louis Marin Hannah Hurrell	Louis Marin Hannah Hurrell 💍 1880/988	Widower Widow	Carpenter not any	52 45	Rangiora Rangiora	25 yrs 13 yrs	House of Mr H. Horrick St. Asaph St. Christchurch	80/1/578		25 March 1880	Rev. J. Mcfarlane
308	29 March 1880	James Crawford Agnes Main	James Crawford Agnes Mein 💍 1880/1078	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Machinist	28 22	Rangiora Rangiora	13 weeks 3 months	Office of Registrar	80/1/444		29 March 1880	A. Hummerston Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).