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 102

District of [UNCLEAR] Quarter ending 30th of 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
25	April 18th	George Thomas Hood Sarah Smith	George Thomas Hood Sarah Smith 💍 1859/2817	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	29 years 25 years	Webb theet, Wellington Tinakori Road, Wellington	4 1/2 years 4 years	The Episcopalian Church known as "St Peter's" Te Aro Flat, Wellington		3rd May	The Revd. Arthur Stock and others
26	April 23rd	Frederick James Bouton Edith Fawcett Newman	Frederick James Bouton Edith Fawcett Newman 💍 1859/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	25 years 25 years	Wellington Wellington	3 years 18 months	A my Private Residence in Ghuznee Street		25th April	The Revd. John Moir and others
27	April 26th	Joseph Davis Sarah Heir	Joseph Davis Sarah Read 💍 1859/2823 Joseph Davis Mary Anne Moss 💍 1859/1208	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 years 26 years	Wellington Kai Warra Warra	about 2 1/2 years about 2 years	In the Private Residence of the Revd. Mr Kirton Wellington Terrace		26th April	The Revd. William Kirton and others
28	April 26th	Henry Eglinton Mary Ann Noakes	Henry Eglinton Mary Ann Noakes 💍 1859/2808	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 years 17 years	Wellington Wellington	18 years 2 years	The Episcopalian Church known as "St Peter's" Wellington	Benjamin Eglinton & Edwin Noakes, the respective Fathers	11th May	The Revd. Arthur Stock and others
29	April 27th	James Matterston Caroline Morris	James Watterson Caroline Morris 💍 1859/2802	Bachelor Spinster	Sail Maker	24 years 22 years	Wellington Wellington	15 months about 2 years	Private Residence of the Revd. James Buller Manners Street		16th May	The Revd. James Buller and others
30	April 30th	Alfred William Hobbs Elizabeth Harriett Butler	Alfred William Hobbs Elizabeth Harriett Butler 💍 1859/2799	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	23 years of age 16 years	Karori Karori	about 2 years 16 years	The Episcopalian Church known as "St Peter's" Willis Street, Wellington	Thomas Butler the Father of Elizabeth Harriett	16th May	The Revd. Arthur Stock B.A. and others
31	April 30th	Stephen Butler Ann Lewis	Stephen Mitter Ann Lewis 💍 1859/2793	Bachelor Widow	Lawyer	23 years 30 years	Karori Karori	19 years 2 years	The Episcopalian Church known as "St Peter's" Willis Street, Wellington		16th May	The Revd. Arthur Stock B.A. and others
32	April 30th	John Wilson Caroline Divon Callcott	John Wilson Caroline Dixon Callcott 💍 1859/2814	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	29 years 27 years	Te Awaiti, but at present at Wellington Wellington	19 years 7 years	The Private Residence of Mr J. M. Callcott Te Aro Flat, Wellington		30th April	The Revd. Wm Kirton 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).