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 149

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 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
1	28 June 1859	Johann Heinrich Friederich Schwass Sophia Margaretha Dorothica Fanzelow	Johann Heinrich Friederich Schwass Sophia Margretha Dorothea Fanzelow 💍 1859/1948	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 17	Waimea East Waimea East	15 years 15 years	The Lutheran Church	Joachina Fanzelow, Father	5 July 1859	Rev. Jno. Mr. C. Heine
11	7 June 1859	James Taylor Emma Bruce	James Taylor Emma Bruce 💍 1859/1963	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	38 26	Waimea East Waimea East	8 years 8 years	At the office of the registrar of marriages Nelson		6 July [UNCLEAR]	John Poynter Registrar
27	15 July 1859	Charles Haycock Heurietta Saywell	Charles Haycock Henrietta Saywell 💍 1859/1951	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 20	Waimea East Waimea East	3 years 4 years	At the residence of Geo. Saywell Carpenter Waimea East	George Saywell, Father	15 July	Rev. John Warren
28	21 July 1859	Thomas Saywell Elizabeth Ann Haycock	Thos Saywell Elizth A Haycock 💍 1859/1954	Bachelor Spinster	Shoe maker	24 18	Richmond Waimea East Hope Waimea East	4 years 2 years	At the residence of Geo. Saywell Carpenter Waimea East	James Haycock Father	21 July	Rev. John Warren
29	5 August 1859	Jacob Russ Margaret Bisgrove	Jacob Russ Margaret Bisgrove 💍 1859/1942	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Richmond Waimea East Richmond Waimea East	2 years 6 days	At the protestant Episcopalian Church in Richmond		22 Aug.	Rev. Saml. Poole
30	6 August 1859	Thomas Snow Ann elle Nab	Thomas Snow Anne McNab 💍 1859/1161	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 26	City of Nelson City of Nelson	18 years 17 years	At the residence of ann me Nat Collingwood St Nelson		22 Aug.	Rev. Patrick Calder
31	10 August 1859	Edgar Dodson Jane Tubbery	Edgar Dodson Jane Tutbery 💍 1859/1945	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Town of Nelson Riwaka	3 weeks 14 years	At the residence of Thomas Dodson farmer Riwaka Suburban North	Rich Tubbery Father	15 Aug.	Rev. John Warren
32	22 August 1859	George Kite Mary Cleaver	Archd Paul confirms that no marriage took place in Nelson during ....."	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	21 26	Richmond Waimea East Richmond Waimea East	16 years 8 years	At the protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson		22 Aug.	Venble Archdeacon Paul
33	24 August 1859	Joseph Porthouse [UNCLEAR] Bray	Joseph Porthouse Jane Bray 💍 1859/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	27 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 months 2 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel	Charles Bray Father	27 Aug.	Rev. John Warren
34	27 August 1859	Robert Talbot Elizabeth Anthony	Robert Talbot Elizabeth Anthony 💍 1859/1939	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 17	Upper Moutere Upper Moutere	18 months 7 years	At the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	Alfred Anthony Father	27 Aug.	John Poynter Registrar
35	20 September 1859	George Harris Elizabeth Woodward	George Harris Elizabeth Woodward 💍 1859/2015	Bachelor Spinster	Writing Clerk	25 19	Grove St. Nelson Nile St. Nelson	4 months 9 months	At the presbyterian Church in Nelson	no person in the Colony having authority to consent	not yet issued
1124	28 June 1859	Thomas Goodwill Mary Anne Turrill	"Not issued notice lapsed"	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Town of Nelson Town of Nelson	9 months 15 months	At the protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson

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).