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 085

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1856

Continuation for the District of Nelson

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	5 November 1856	Henry Lorell Salome Palmer	Henry Lovell Salome Palmer 💍 1856/1771	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason	28 30	Town of Nelson do	Twelve months Two years	at the residence Mr Poynter, Registrar Man of Haven Road, Nelson	5 November 1856	John Poynter
49	10 November 1856	Thomas Treewheeler Elizabeth Johns	Thomas Trewheelar Elizabeth Johns 💍 1856/10	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 25	Town of Nelson do	Two years Six months	at the residence of Mr Thos Treewheeler, Haven Road, Nelson	10 November 1856	Rev Decimus Dolamore
50	12 November 1856	William Turner Mary Ann McFarlane	William Turner Mary Ann Macfarlane 💍 1856/11	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Carpenter	30 18	Town of Nelson do	nine months one year	at the residence of Mr Akersten, Haven Road, Nelson	12 November 1856	Rev Decimus Dolamore
51	17 November 1856	Andrew James Richmond Anna Selina Blundell	Andrew James Richmond Anna Selina Blundell 💍 1856/1777	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Town of Nelson Waimea West	One month Four years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	17 November 1856	Rev H. F. Butt
52	18 November 1856	James Lee Hodgson Marion Fail	James Lee Hodgson Marion Vail 💍 1856/1510	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Suburban North Town of Nelson	Five years One year	at the residence of Mr B. O Hodgson, Scotland Street, Nelson	3 December 1856	Rev J. D. Nicholson
53	25 November 1856	Edward Atmore Ellen Hymearls	Edward Atmore Ellen Winearls 💍 1856/1866	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 24	Town of Nelson do	Seven weeks Seven weeks	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	25 November 1856	Rev H. F. Butt
54	1 December 1856	Daniel Damant Elizabeth Prockett	Daniel Damant Elizabeth Pickett 💍 1856/1875	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 24	Town of Nelson do	Twelve months Twelve months	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	16 December 1856	Rev H. F. Butt
55	6 December 1856	James Pratt Hannah Newton	James Pratt Hannah Newton 💍 1856/1869	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 31	Town of Nelson do	Two months Two months	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	20 December 1856	Rev H. F. Butt
56	8 December 1856	William Henry Turner Mary Anne Wells	William Henry Turner Mary Ann Wells 💍 1856/1551	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Town of Nelson do	Twelve months Five months	at the residence of William Henry Turner, Waimea Road, Nelson	22 December 1856	Rev J. D. Nicholson
57	9 December 1856	John Baker Harriett Shallcrass	John Baker Harriet Shallcrass 💍 1856/1872	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	33 26	Town of Nelson do	Eight months Twelve months	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	24 December 1856	Rev H. F. Butt
58	18 December 1856	Robert Aitken Sarah Hooper	Robert Aitken Sarah Hooper 💍 1857/2244	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	20 21	Town of Nelson do	Five years Five years	at the Baptist Chapel in Nelson	18 December 1856	Rev Decimus Dolamore
59	22 December 1856	John Julius Henry Jacobsen Jane Flower	John Julius Henry Jacobsen Jane Flower 💍 1857/1753	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 21	Town of Nelson do	Six years Two years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	22 December 1856	Rev H. F. Butt
60	26 December 1856	William Storrer Goodwing Mary Bomforth	William Storrer Goodwin Mary Bomforth 💍 1856/1513	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 19	Town of Nelson do	Four years Five years	at the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	27 December 1856	Rev J. D. Nicholson
61	31 December 1856	William Robert Cator Hannah Granton	William Robert Cator Hannah Stanton 💍 1857/1980	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	31 17	Richmond New Zealand Street, Nelson	Six months Five years	at the residence of Mr B O Hodgson, Scotland Street, Nelson

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).