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 B

District of New Plymouth Quarter ending 30 September 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
48	4 July 1856	William Henry Seccombe Eliza Jane Hammerton	William Henry Seccombe Eliza Jane Hammerton 💍 1856/894	Bachelor Spinster	Maltster Brown	22 23	Carrington Road Devon Road	15 Yrs 2 Yrs	Trinity Church	July 4	Rev. C. T. B. Kingdon
49	7 July 1856	John Marsh Mary Northcott	John Marsh Mary Northcott 💍 1856/1916	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 19	Henui Henui	14 Yrs 14 Yrs	Primitive M. Chapel	July 21	Rev Joseph Long
50	21 July 1856	William Halse Harriett Wood	William Halse Harriet Wood 💍 1856/1418	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	38 19	New Plymouth New Plymouth	14 Yrs 14 Yrs	Wesleyan Church	July 21	Rev H. H. Turton
51	28 July 1856	William Martin Fanny Hall	William Martin Fanny Hall 💍 1856/1913	Widower Spinster	Cabinet Maker	30 20	Henui Henui	12 Mos 4 days	House of William Stewart	July 28	Rev Joseph Long
52	29 July 1856	William Tyson Sarah Ann Gyde	William Fyson Sarah Ann Gyde 💍 1856/1919	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 18	New Plymouth New Plymouth	5 days 5 days	Primitive Methodist Chapel	July 29	Rev Joseph Long
53	10 September 1856	Andrew Cole Bertha Jordon	Andrew Cole Bertha Jordan 💍 1856/1922	Bachelor Spinster	Corporal 85th Regt	24 20	New Plymouth New Plymouth	12 Mos 14 Yrs	Colonial Hospital Henui	Sept 10	Rev Joseph Long
54	20 September 1856	Henry Frain Mary Connell	Henry Crann Mary Connell 💍 1856/1421	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	20 14	Grey Block N.P. New Plymouth	14 Yrs 18 Mos	House of Henry Frain, Grey Block	Sept 20	Rev Horatio Groube
55	26 September 1856	John Farrel Seccombe Isabella Harriet [UNCLEAR]	John Carrall Secombe Isabella Harriette Hammerton 💍 1856/1240	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	21 20	Carrington Road Devon Road	14 Yrs 2 Yrs	St. Mary's Church	Sept 26	Rev C. T. B. Kingdon

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).