Intentions to Marry, 1859

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840371, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 12 2024

Page 103

District of [UNCLEAR] Quarter ending 30th June 1859

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
33	10 May 1859	William Davis Katherine Williams	William Davis Catherine Williams 💍 1859/2805	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	21 years 20 years	Wellington Wellington	1 Year 17 Years	The Episcopalian Church known as "St Peters"	Davis Williams the Father of "Katherine"	10th May 1859	The Revd. Arthur Stock and others
34	16 May 1859	Thomas Dillow William Smith Eliza Allen	Thomas Dillon William Smith Eliza Allen 💍 1859/2796	Widower Widow	Cabinet maker	47 Years 40 Years	Lambton Quay Lambton Quay	18 Months Some years	The Roman Catholic Chapel in Wellington known as "St Mary's"		16th May 1859	The Right Revd. Bishop Viard and others
35	28 May 1859	Henry Brown Jane Nicoll	Henry Brown Jane Nicoll 💍 1859/1176	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 Years 19 Years	Waikanae Waikanae	18 Months 18 Years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	John Nicoll the Father of "Jane"	28th May 1859	John Elisha Smith, the Registrar of Marriages, Wellington, and others
36	8 June 1859	John Macgregor Mary Ann Gill	John McGregor Ann Gill 💍 1859/2790	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 Years 15 Years	Wellington Wellington	4 Years 15 Years	The Roman Catholic Chapel in Manners Street	Margaret Gill, Widow, the Mother of "Mary Ann"	8th June 1859	The Revd. J. J. P. O'Reilly and others
37	13 June 1859	Christopher Thompson Mary Ann Key	Christopher Thompson Mary Ann Key 💍 1859/1256	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 Years 19 Years	Waiwhetu - at present residing in Wellington Wellington	3 Days 2 1/2 Years	In the Episcopalian Church in Wellington known as "St Paul's"	Thomas Key the Father of "Mary Ann"	13 June 1859	The Revd. Arthur Baker M. A. & others
38	17 June 1859	George Mumble Catherine Phillips	George Mundle Catherine Phillips 💍 1859/2841	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	24 Years 20 Years	Wellington Wellington	9 Months 9 Months	The Episcopalian Church known as "St Peter's" in Wellington
39	21 June 1859	Robert Miller Jane Mitchell	Robert Miller Jane Mitchell 💍 1859/1570	Widower Spinster	Baker	27 Years 21 Years, 6 Months	Cuba Street, Wellington Porirua, near Wellington	19 Years 19 Years	Private Residence of Mr James Mitchell, Porirua		21 June 1859	The Revd. John Moir and others
40	24 June 1859	James Henry Houghton Catherine Bozard	James Henry Houghton Catherine Bozard 💍 1859/2787	Bachelor Spinster	Lighterman	33 Years 18 Years	Wellington Wellington	19 Years 2 1/2 Years	The Private Residence of George Houghton in Manners Street	John Turner the Guardian of "Catherine"	24 June 1859	The Revd. James Buller and others

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).