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 152

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1859 Registrar John Poynter

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

15 December 1859

Edwin William Trent
Caroline Watts

Edwin W Trent
Caroline Watts
💍 1859/1975

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper's assistant

21
20

City of Nelson
City of Nelson

Four years
Four years

At the residence of Mr. C. H. Trent in Hardy St., Nelson

Thomas Watts, tailor

15 December 1859

Rev. John Warren

No	48
Date of Notice	15 December 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin William Trent	Caroline Watts
BDM Match (84%)	Edwin W Trent	Caroline Watts
	💍 1859/1975
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper's assistant
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	City of Nelson
Length of Residence	Four years	Four years
Marriage Place	At the residence of Mr. C. H. Trent in Hardy St., Nelson
Folio
Consent	Thomas Watts, tailor
Date of Certificate	15 December 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Warren

19 December 1859

John Humphrey
Augusta Lowe

John Humphrey
Augusta Lowe
💍 1859/1981

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawyer

23
15

City of Nelson
City of Nelson

Fifteen years
One month

At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

Carl Lowe, father

19 December 1859

John Poynter, Registrar

No	49
Date of Notice	19 December 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Humphrey	Augusta Lowe
	💍 1859/1981
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawyer
Age	23	15
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	City of Nelson
Length of Residence	Fifteen years	One month
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
Folio
Consent	Carl Lowe, father
Date of Certificate	19 December 1859
Officiating Minister	John Poynter, Registrar

19 December 1859

William Corkill
Margaret Sullivan

William Corkill
Margaret Sullivan
💍 1859/1969

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

24
20

City of Nelson
City of Nelson

four years
three years

At the Catholic Church in Nelson

Declaration that no person in the Colony had power to consent

19 December 1859

Rev. Ant. M. Garin

No	50
Date of Notice	19 December 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Corkill	Margaret Sullivan
	💍 1859/1969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	City of Nelson
Length of Residence	four years	three years
Marriage Place	At the Catholic Church in Nelson
Folio
Consent	Declaration that no person in the Colony had power to consent
Date of Certificate	19 December 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. Ant. M. Garin

24 December 1859

Nicholas Samson
Mary Anne Sophia Tyrrell

Nicholas Samson
Mary Ann Sophia Tyrrel
💍 1859/1972

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

35
19

Croixelles
Brook St Valley

Five years
Two weeks

At the residence of W. Will Hughes, farmer, Waimea South

Harriett Hughes, mother

24 December 1859

Rev. Decimus Dolamore

No	51
Date of Notice	24 December 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nicholas Samson	Mary Anne Sophia Tyrrell
BDM Match (96%)	Nicholas Samson	Mary Ann Sophia Tyrrel
	💍 1859/1972
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	35	19
Dwelling Place	Croixelles	Brook St Valley
Length of Residence	Five years	Two weeks
Marriage Place	At the residence of W. Will Hughes, farmer, Waimea South
Folio
Consent	Harriett Hughes, mother
Date of Certificate	24 December 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. Decimus Dolamore

27 December 1859

James Hargreaves
Mary McArtney

James Hargreaves
Mary McArtney
💍 1859/1966

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

38
30

City of Nelson
City of Nelson

Eight years
Eight years

At the residence of Mr. I. Mc Artney, Bridge St., Nelson

27 December 1859

Rev. Patrick Calder

No	52
Date of Notice	27 December 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Hargreaves	Mary McArtney
BDM Match (96%)	James Hargreaves	Mary McArtney
	💍 1859/1966
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	38	30
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	City of Nelson
Length of Residence	Eight years	Eight years
Marriage Place	At the residence of Mr. I. Mc Artney, Bridge St., Nelson
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 December 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. Patrick Calder

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).