Intentions to Marry, 1858

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840370, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 102

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1858

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
80	10 November 185[UNCLEAR]	Alexander Cockburn Christina Sutherland	Alexander Cockburn Christina Sutherland 💍 1858/2359	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 20	Karori Lyalls Bay	6 years 10 months	Residence of Mr. et. Sutherland Ly all's Bay		November 11? 1858	The Revd. J. Mow
81	November 11th 1858	Herander Bruce Jane Duncan	Alexr Bruce Jane Duncan 💍 1858/2362	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	37 42	Lyall's Bay Lyalls Bay	About 3 1/2 yrs. 10 months	Private residence of W. Ch. Sutherland		November 11? 1858	The Revd. J. Mow
82	November 13th 1858	Joseph Hall Jane Clark	Joseph Hall Jane Clark 💍 1858/2335	Widower Spinster	Wheelwright		Hutt Hutt	3 months 1 month	The residence of the Revd. W. Kerton, Welling/ton Terrace		November 13th 1858	The Revd. W. Kerton
83	November 15th 1858	Arshad Knowles Elizabeth Caroline Northwood	Arthur Knowles Elizabeth Caroline Northwood 💍 1858/2422	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Union Bank of Australasia	23 Minor	Wades Town Pinakori Road	10 years Many yrs	Australasian Church known as "St. Paul's" Wellington	J. Northwood, father	November 15th 1858	The Revd. H.W. S. Hill
84	November 19th 185[UNCLEAR]	Alexander Phillips Ellen Sarah Stanton	Alexander Phillips Ellen Sarah Theresa Stanton 💍 1858/2496	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 19	Wellington Wellington	8 months 10 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Maunus St.	Margaret Murphy, mother	November 19th 1858	The Revd. J. P. O'Reilly
85	November 20th 1850	Alexander Sutherland Rose Huntley	Alexander Sutherland Allan Elizabeth Rosian Huntley 💍 1858/1061	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Sup. and. Off.	Minor	Wellington Wellington	15 months 1 year	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Wellington		November 15th 1858	[UNCLEAR]
86	November 25th 1858	Charles Bull Emily Muir	Charles Bull Emily Pigden 💍 1858/2395	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	32 [UNCLEAR] 4 yrs wanting 3 months	Lambton Quay Thorndon Flat	17 years 11 years	Private residence of the Revd. J. Smith, Sydney St.
87	30 November 1858	James Cockburn Catherine McKenzie	"Not yet issued"	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 30	Karori Wellington	7 years 7 years	Private residence of Mr Cockburn Karori		Not yet issued	The Revd. J. Smith
88	December 8th 1858	Hernandez Sutherland Elizabeth Rosanna Huntley	Alexander Sutherland Allan Elizabeth Rosian Huntley 💍 1858/1061	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Sup. Band Off.	full age Minor	Wellington Wellington	15 months 1 year	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Wellington		December 23rd 1858	The Revd. Bishop Viard
89	December 14th 1858	Enoch Souks Susannah Spencer	Enoch Tonks Susannah Spencer 💍 1858/2392	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	30 17	Wellington Wellington	17 years 11 years	Private residence of the Revd. J. Smith, Sydney St.	Wm. Brooks & Edmund Spencer - respective fathers	December 14 1858	The Revd. J. Smith
90	December 14th 1858	Charles Bruce Emily Pigden	Charles Bull Emily Pigden 💍 1858/2395	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	32 21	Wellington Thorndon Flat	2 years 18 months	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Sydney St.		December 14 1858	The Revd. J. Smith
91	December 15th 1858	Ebenezer Loader Charlotte Smith	Ebenezer Loader Charlotte Smith 💍 1859/1241	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 18	Wellington Prion Belt	4 years 10 years	Primitive Methodist Chapel in Sydney St.	James Smith, Father	December 31? 1858	The Revd. J. Smith

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).