Intentions to Marry, 1860

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840372, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 037

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1860

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	13 January 1860	Hugh Henry Tyler DeJoney Stafford Caroline Anne Wood	Hugh Henry Tyrler de Tony Staffords Caroline Ann Wood 💍 1860/3748	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	31 25	Stoke Suburban South Haven Road Nelson	Two years Three months	At the protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson		13 January 1860	The Lord Bishop of Nelson
2	13 January 1860	Henry Thomas Parsons Margaret Pride	H S Parson Margaret Pride 💍 1860/3814	Widower Spinster	Labourer	74 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	Six months Three months	At the residence of John Bothamy Tasman St, Nelson		28 January 1860	Reverend John Warren
3	24 January 1860	William Pugh Ann Caroline Brothertons	"This notice withdrawn vide NO. 7"	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	30 24	Waimea Road Nelson Brook St Nelson	Two months Four months	At the presbyterian Church in Nelson
4	25 January 1860	Robert Carter Mary Bright	Robert Carter Mary Bright 💍 1860/3802	Widower Spinster	Labourer	40 42	Bridge Street Selwyn Place Nelson	Three months Three years	At the Wesleyan Chapel in Hardy St Nelson		25 January 1860	Reverend John Warren
5	26 January 1860	Martin Christian Elizabeth Leech	Martin Christian Elizabeth Leech 💍 1860/3805	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 19	Collingwood Nelson Collingwood Nelson	Two weeks Two months	At the Wesleyan Chapel in Hardy St Nelson	Jonathan Leech of Collingwood Street Nelson - Father	26 January 1860	Reverend John Warren
6	28 January 1860	Charles Walter Moore Mary Anne Davenport	Charles W Moore Mary Ann Davenport 💍 1860/3808	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	30 21	Toi-Toi Street Nelson Haven Road Nelson	One year Two months	At the residence of Mr Rob. Smart Haven Rd Nelson		28 January 1860	Reverend John Warren
7	2 February 1860	William Pugh Ann Caroline Brotherson	William Pugh Caroline Brotherton 💍 1860/3811	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	30 24	Waimea Road Nelson Brook St Nelson	Two months Four months	At the Wesleyan Chapel in Hardy St Nelson		2 February 1860	Reverend John Warren
8	6 February 1860	Edward Fairhall Caroline Price	Edward Fairhall Caroline Price 💍 1860/3709	Widower Spinster	Farmer	30 29	Wakefield Waimea South Wakefield Waimea South	Eleven years Eleven years	At the Catholic Church in Waimea West		20 February 1860	Reverend Art. M. Garin
9	14 February 1860	Thomas West Ann Carvell	Thomas West Ann Carwell 💍 1860/3820	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 30	Waimea West Suburban North	Two years Three years	At the Wesleyan Chapel in Hardy St Nelson		14 February 1860	Reverend John Warren
10	15 February 1860	William Daniel Bright Jane Pearson	William D Bright Jane Pearson 💍 1860/3817	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 23	Waimea St Nelson Waimea St Nelson	Eighteen years Three years	At the Wesleyan Chapel in Hardy St Nelson		15 February 1860	Reverend John Warren
11	18 February 1860	James Lever Entwisle Sophia Bennett	James L Entwistle Sophia Bennett 💍 1860/3823	Widower Spinster	Printer	49 34	Hampden Terr: Nelson Grove St Nelson	Seven months Three months	At the residence of Mr Jas Entwisle Hampden Terr: Nelson		18 February 1860	Reverend John Warren
12	21 February 1860	James Dawes Eliza Small	James Dawes Eliza Small 💍 1860/3751	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 17	Stoke Suburban South Stoke Suburban South	Four years Three years	At the protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson	William Small of Stoke Farmer - Father	21 February 1860	Reverend Lousdale Pritt

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).