1856 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840368, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 18 2024

Page 031

District of New Plymouth Quarter ending 30 June 1856

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
40	8 April 1856	Thomas Milner Janet Cameron	Thomas Milner Janet Cameron 💍 1856/950	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	28 21	Devonport. N.P. Parnell, Auckland	18 Months 12 Months	St. Pauls, Auckland	April 8	Rev. J. F. Lloyd
41	23 April 1856	Richard Jury Eliza Grylls	Richard Jury Eliza Grylls 💍 1856/870	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Omata N.P. Omata N.P.	7 years 7 years	Church of Omata	April 23	Rev. George Bayley
42	26 April 1856	George Jupp Susanna Batten	George Jupp Susannah Batten 💍 1856/1952	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 20	Omata N.P. Te Henui N.P.	4 years 14 years	House of Alfred Marsh Te Henui	April 26	Rev. Joseph Long
43	27 May 1856	Alexander King Emily Mary Homeyer	Alexander King Emily M Homeyer 💍 1856/1237	Widower Spinster	Auctioneer	46 28	Devon St. N.P. Devon St. N.P.	14 years 6 years	Church of St. Mary	May 27	Rev. H. Govett
44	28 May 1856	Charles Hetley Georgina Bund McKellar	Charles Hetley Georgina B McKellar 💍 1856/1225	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	30 24	Omata N.P. Omata N.P.	2.5 years 3.5 years	Church of Omata	May 28	Rev. George Bayley
45	13 June 1856	Henry Smith Mary Ann Batten	Henry Smith Mary Ann Batten 💍 1856/1955	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	27 21	New Plymouth Same	5 years 10 years	House of Alfred Marsh, Te Henui	June 13	Rev. Joseph Long
46	16 June 1856	Robert Hart Frances Holloway	Robert Hart Frances Holloway 💍 1856/1958	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	25 35	Omata N.P. Omata N.P.	14 years 13 years	House of Frances Holloway, Omata	June 16	Rev. Joseph Long
47	24 June 1856	John Northcott Elizabeth Hannah	John Northcott Elizabeth Hannah Knuckey 💍 1856/1961	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 16	Te Henui N.P. Waiwakaika, N.P.	14 years 13 years	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Te Henui	June 24	Rev. Joseph Long

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 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).