1857 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840369, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 13 2024

Page 094

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1857

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
2	20 January 1857	James Henry Harris Anna maria Saap	James Henry Harris Anna Maria Paap 💍 1857/1756	Bachelor Thinster	Bncklayer	23 21	Town of nelson do	One year Fine years	at the Protectantin Nelion	28 January 1857	A y Butt
3	21 January 1857	John Phillips Jane Pickering	"Certificate not issued"	Bachelor Spenser	Carpenter	23 19	Richmond Richmond	one year One year	At the First Episcopal Church in Nelson	Certificate not issued
4	2 February 1857	Alfred Greenfield Emma Bessie Impett	Alfred Greenfield Emma Bessie Knyvett 💍 1857/1766	Bachelor Spunster	Gentleman	27 24	Town of neleon do	Three years one year	at the Protes Episcin nelsonChurch	18 February 1857	ReoH Butt
5	7 February 1857	William real martha Atris	William Nest Martha Avis 💍 1857/2256	Bachelor Gunster	Laborer	23 16	Namea West do	nine months five years	arthe IntertantEpiveopalian Chunchin Namer West	23 February 1857	J. a Bowden
6	17 February 1857	Henry Handbars mahida Scutter	Henry Kudbars Matilda Scutter 💍 1857/2317	Bachelor Thunster	Boahman	32 22	Town of nelson do	Ince yours Fue years	at the residence ofMilliam Pahlthe Joson of Nelson	17 February 1857	RevJohn Warren
7	27 February 1857	James Rof Hannah Teakle	James Ross Hannah Teakle 💍 1857/2247	undower Transfer	Laborer	40 28	Groke Subusban Sth do	Eighternmonths nine months	at the residenceofmr.Stoke	16 March 1857	ReoDecember Dolamon
8	3 March 1857	Alexander Drummondo Lamsa Bullard	Alexander Drummond Louisa Bullard 💍 1857/2299	Bachelor Gransfer	Farmer	26 26		Two months highleenin Warmen Heatmonths.	at the residenceof Challies	3 March 1857	RedJ D nicholson
9	3 March 1857	Lawrence Dron Ann Honeyman	Lawrence Dron Ann Honeyman 💍 1857/2348	Bachelor Undow	Sawyer	29 38	Waimea West Waimea South	Five years twelve months	at the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	3 March 1857	Rev. J D Nicholson
10	6 March 1857	Alfred Olsten Mary Driscolle	"Certificate not issued"	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Sent	22 22	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	nine months Five months	At the residence of Mt John Bain, Haven Road Nelson	Certificate not issued
11	9 March 1857	William Meads Caroline Harman	William Meads Caroline Harman 💍 1857/1760	Bachelor Trinster	Labourer	27 17	Suburtan South Parook Shuttally	Thr weeks five years	at the ProtectantEpiscopalises Churchin nelson	9 March 1857	RedI b. Bagshew
42	23 October 1856	Thomas Brown Chrabeth wadsworthe	Thomas Brown Elizabeth Wadsworth 💍 1857/2253	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 18	Wiamea South Wakefield	nine months Three years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church Wakefield, Waimea South	1 January 1857	Rev. J. A Bowden
61	31 December 1856	William Robert Cator Hannah Stanton	William Robert Cator Hannah Stanton 💍 1857/1980	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	31 17	Richmond, Waimea East " "	Six Months Five years	at the residenceofMB. O.Hodgson in Scotland Street. Nelson	5 January 1857	Rev J. D. Nicholson
	5 January 1857	Robert Pollock Ellen Fuller	Robert Pollock Ellen Fuller 💍 1857/2322	widower Spinster	Farmer	42 21	Suburban North do	Two years Two years	at the residenceof no Robert Pollock in sub" north.	5 January 1857	J D nicholson

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).