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 098

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
53	13 July 1858	James Henry Chapfull Elizabeth Maria Sarah Chappell	James Henry Chappell Eliza M Sarah Chappell 💍 1858/2356	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 20 years 9 months	Wellington Terrace Wellington Terrace	1 year 4 months	Residence of Mr. Jas. Chappell on Wellington Terrace	Henry Chappell, father	13 July 1858	The Rev. J. Moir
55	29 July 1858	Henry Norman Mary Ann Edwards	Henry Norman Mary Ann Edwards 💍 1858/2454	Bachelor Spinster	Grazier	25 19	Wellington Hutt	3 days 10 years	St. Peters, Wellington	Robert Edwards, Father	29 July 1858	Rev. C. Stock. B.A
56	2 August 1858	Mackwood Smith Elizabeth Brough	Mackwood Smith Elizabeth Brough 💍 1858/2487	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 21 years 7 months	Wellington Wellington	2 years 18 months	Roman Catholic Chapel known as 'Mays', at Shantom		Sept. 2nd 1858	Right Rev. Bishop Viard
57	16 August 1858	Auston Bonthcott Nilson Sarah Campbell	Anton Bernhardt Nilsin Sarah Campbell 💍 1858/2410	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 24	Wellington Wellington	3 months 4 months	Episcopalian Church known as St. Pauls in Wellington		Sept. 2nd 1858	Rev A Baker. M. A
58	11 August 1858	Edward Lawrence Sarah Ann Nixon	Edward Laurence Sarah Ann Mexted 💍 1858/2288	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 17	Pororua Road Porurua Road	4 years 15 years	Episcopalian Church known as St. Pauls in Wellington	George Musted, Father	August 20th 1858	Rev. A. Baker. M. A
59	21 August 1858	James Pickup Mary Overeno	James Pickup Mary Overend 💍 1858/2460	Bachelor Spinster	Fruakerin	22 18	Mount Cook Barracks Sectro Flat	2 years 4 months nearly 18 years	Episcopalian Church known as 'St. Peters' in Willis St.	Elizabeth Overend, Mother
60	28 August 1858	George Morrell Mary Anne Payes	George Morrell Mary Ann Payne 💍 1858/2383	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	38 38	Lambton Quay Lambton Quay	About 4 weeks About 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel in Manners St.		August 27 1858	Rev. J. J. P. O'Reilly
1154	20 July 1858	William Smith Mary Trout	"Certificate cancelled after it appeared that Mary Trout is not a widow but is simply living separated from her husband"	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	28 38	Wellington Wellington	4 months 2 1/2 years	Cottage on Thorndon Quay known as "The Cottage of Content"		1 August 1858	The Rev. W. Kirton

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).