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 100

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 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
55	12 October 1857	Samuel Blake Clara Gleeson	Samuel Clarke Clara Gleeson 💍 1857/2278	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 20	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	14 days 8 months	at the residence of The Rev. Jno. Framen in Washington Valley Nelson	13 October 1857	Reverend Jno Warren
56	30 October 1857	George Coleman Esther Floss	George Coleman Esther Sloss 💍 1857/2281	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	25 30	Wakefield Waimea South Waimea South	2 years 5 years	at the residence of Esther Floss, in Waimea South	30 October 1857	John Warren
57	7 November 1857	George Morgan Isabella Barney Fisher	George Morgan Isabella Baney Fisher 💍 1857/984 George Morgan Isabella Barrey Fisher 💍 1857/2267	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	30 20	Waimea West Waimea West	8 years 8 years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Waimea West	24 November 1857	Reverend Thos. A. Bowden
58	9 November 1857	Adelbert Peter Lawson Margaret Robinson	Adelbert Peter Lawson Margaret Robinson 💍 1857/1951	Widower Spinster	Mariner	37 19	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	8 months 10 years	at the Protestant in Nelson	9 November 1857	Reverend Henry F. Butt
59	11 November 1857	John Burch Sarah Stephens	John Busch Sarah Stephens 💍 1857/2223	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	22 20	Waimea East Waimea West	10 years 5 years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Richmond Waimea West	27 November 1857	Reverend Samuel Poole
60	11 November 1857	John Cockeram Christina Parker	John Cockeram Christina Parker 💍 1857/2287	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 20	Town of Nelson Stoke Suburban South	3 years 5 years	at the residence of the Rev. John in Stoke Suburban South	12 November 1857	Reverend John Warren
61	11 November 1857	Hicks Parker Barbara Parker	Hicks Parker Barbara Parker 💍 1857/2284	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 23	Town of Nelson Stoke Suburban South	10 months 5 years	at the residence of the Rev. Jno. named in Washington Valley Nelson	11 November 1857	Reverend John Warren
62	17 November 1857	William Farmer Elizabeth Clarkson	William Farmer Elizabeth Clarkson 💍 1857/2290	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 23	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	14 days 3 years	at the residence of W. Jane in Haven Road Nelson	17 November 1857	Reverend John Warren
63	19 November 1857	Thomas York Emma Edwards	Thomas York Emma Edwards 💍 1857/1954	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 22	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	2 years 5 years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	19 November 1857	Reverend Henry Francis Butt
64	20 November 1857	Richard Ching Elizabeth Peafse	Richard Ching Elizabeth Pearse 💍 1857/2229	Widower Spinster	Farmer	40 28	Suburban South Suburban South	5 years 18 months	at the office of the Registrar of Marriages in Nelson	20 November 1857	John Poynter, Registrar of Marriages
65	24 November 1857	Charles Stagg Caroline Sarah Robison	Charles Stagg Caroline Sarah Robison 💍 1857/2265	Widower Widow	Lawyer	38 39	Waimea West Waimea West	13 years 13 months	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Waimea West	24 November 1857	Reverend Thomas A. Bowden
66	24 November 1857	George Henry Harris Sarah Golding	George Henry Harris Sarah Golding 💍 1857/1957	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Waimea East Town of Nelson	2 months 10 days	at the Protestant in Waimea West	24 November 1857	Reverend Thomas A. Bowden
67	30 November 1857	George Henry Harris Sarah Golding	George Henry Harris Sarah Golding 💍 1857/1957	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Waimea East Town of Nelson	2 months 10 days	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	30 November 1857	Reverend Henry Francis Butt
68	30 November 1857	James Daniel Cavanagh Margaret Reardon	James Daniel Cavanagh Margaret Reardon 💍 1857/1977	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 19	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	12 months 3 years	at the chapel of the Catholic [station?] in Nelson	30 November 1857	Reverend Marie Antoine Garin
69	5 December 1857	Henry Dodson Emma Snow	Henry Dodson Emma Snow 💍 1857/1960	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	28 25	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	2 years 6 years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	5 December 1857	Reverend Henry Francis Butt

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).