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 086

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 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
32	15 September 1856	George Bennett Emma James	George Bennett Emma James 💍 1856/1554	Bachelor Spinster	Merchants Clerk	21 18	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Twelve months Three years	At the residence of Mr. Edwin Smallbone in Nelson	4 November 1856	Rev. T. D. Nicholson
35	30 September 1856	Samuel Bolton Elizabeth Wilson	Samuel Bolton Elizabeth Wilson 💍 1856/1548	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 18	Suburban South Nelson	Five weeks Four months	At the residence of Samuel Bolton at Stoke	15 October 1856	Rev. T. D. Nicholson
36	2 October 1856	John Bain Janet Bryce	John Bain Janet Bryce 💍 1856/835	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Laborer Domestic Servant	22 22	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Five months Six months	At the Residence of John Appoo in Bridge street, Nelson	17 October 1856	Rev. T. D. Nicholson
37	7 October 1856	Charles Henry Ford Betty Gifford	Charles Henry Ford Betsey Gifford 💍 1856/1557	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	Waimea West Waimea East	Two years Five years	At the School house at Appleby in Waimea East	27 October 1856	Rev. T. D. Nicholson
38	7 October 1856	Thomas Gifford Elizabeth Wallace	Thomas Gifford Elizabeth Wallace 💍 1856/1545	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	25 18	Waimea East Waimea East	Eight years Seven years	At the School house at Appleby in Waimea East	27 October 1856	Rev. T. D. Nicholson
39	8 October 1856	George Seymour Elizabeth McGee	George Seymour Elizabeth McGee 💍 1856/1803	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	22 21	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Two years Five years	At the Chapel of the Catholic in Nelson	8 October 1856	Rev. M. A. Garin
40	11 October 1856	Arthur Penrose Seymour Catherine Florence Huddleston	Arthur Penrose Seymour Catherine Florence Huddleston 💍 1856/1854	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	24 18	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Five years Eight months	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	11 October 1856	Rev. H. F. Butt
41	22 October 1856	Henry Barltrop Caroline Scutler	Henry Barltrop Caroline Scutter 💍 1856/1863	Widower Spinster	Miller Domestic Servant	28 20	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Three years Five years	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	6 November 1856	Rev. H. F. Butt
42	23 October 1856	Thomas Brown Elizabeth Hudson	Thomas Brown Elizabeth Wadsworth 💍 1857/2253	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 18	Waimea South Waimea South	Nine months Three years	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church at Wakefield, Waimea South
43	27 October 1856	William Matthews Jane Cutts	William Matthews Jane Coppins 💍 1856/1780	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 18	Richmond, Waimea East Richmond, Waimea East	Twelve months Twelve months	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church at Richmond	14 November 1856	Rev. H. F. Butt
44	29 October 1856	William Wells Fanny Stanton	William Wells Fanny Stanton 💍 1856/1860	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	22 21	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Four months Four months	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	1 November 1856	Rev. H. F. Butt
45	31 October 1856	Charles Edwards Eliza Walls	Charles Edwards Eliza Watts 💍 1856/1857	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	Five years Six months	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	27 October 1856	Rev. H. F. Butt
46	31 October 1856	William Matthews Jane Coptins	William Matthews Jane Coppins 💍 1856/1780	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 18	Richmond, Waimea East Waimea East	Twelve months Twelve months	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church at Richmond	3 November 1856	Rev. Samuel Poole
47	1 November 1856	Robert Speer Dinah Walker	Robert Speer Dinah Walker 💍 1856/1774	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	25 21	Waimea West Waimea West	Twelve months Twelve years	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Waimea West	21 November 1856	Rev. T. A. Bowden

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).