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 101

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 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
17	2 April 1860	John Joseph Henry Schwass Dorothea Sophia Mary Schroder	John Joseph Henry Schwass Dorothea Sophia Maria Schroder 💍 1860/3902	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Appleby Waimea East Ranzau Waimea East	years fourteen yrs	At the residence of Mr Christopher Frederick John Schwass farmer Appleby Waimea East	John Henry Schroder father	2 April 1860	Rev. J. M. Chr. Heine
18	3 April 1860	Christian Frederick Augustus Dencker Eleanor Kimber Stirling	Christian Frederick Augustus Dencker Eleonor Kimber Stirling 💍 1860/3911	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman	25 26	Waimea East Waimea East	five years fifteen yrs	At the residence of Mr Christian Frederick Augustus Dencker Ranzau Waimea East		not yet issued
19	9 April 1860	Charles Christie Lucretia Freeman	Charles Christie Lucretia Freeman 💍 1860/3923	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	37 20	Waimea Road Nelson Haven Road Nelson	sixteen yrs eighteen yrs	At the residence of W. Thomas Graham Freeman Haven Road	Thomas Graham Freeman father	25 April 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
20	14 April 1860	Peter Levy Norah Falvey	Peter Levy Norah Falvey 💍 1860/3757	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	fifteen mos eight mos	At the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy St. Nelson		14 April 1860	Rev. Jonathan Innes
21	25 April 1860	Thomas Cartledge Green Mary M. Lean	Thomas Cartledge Green Mary Maclean 💍 1861/10	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	six months six months	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson		25 April 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
22	25 April 1860	Henry Barnett Elizabeth Steward	Henry Burnett Elizabeth Stewart 💍 1860/3920 Henry Lambert Elizabeth Lewis 💍 1860/2474	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	eighteen yrs four years	At the residence of William Collins Esqr Milton St. Nelson		25 April 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
23	16 May 1860	John Samuel Pratt Mary Smith	John Samuel Pratt Mary Smith 💍 1860/3926	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 19	Bridge Street Nelson Nile St. East	four years ten years	At the residence of W. George Smith, Fuller Nile St. East Nelson	George Smith father	16 May 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
24	29 May 1860	John Smith Mary Kimber Hildreth	John Smith Mary Kimber Hildreth 💍 1860/3667	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Waimea South Waimea South	four years different yrs	At the residence of W. William Hildreth Farmer Waimea South		29 May 1860	Rev. Decimus Delamore
25	30 May 1860	Robert Black Jessie Black	Robert Black Jessie Black 💍 1860/3929	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 25	Collingwood Street Nelson Trafalgar Street Nelson	five years five years	At the residence of W. James Palmer Black Trafalgar Street North Nelson		30 May 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
26	1 June 1860	Richard Thomas Flower Elizabeth Puff	Richard Thomas Flower Elizabeth Ruff 💍 1860/3932	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	29 35	Waimea South Selwyn Place Nelson	five months five months	At the residence of W. William Norgrove Painter Selwyn Place Nelson		1 June 1860	Rev. Edward Thomas
27	12 June 1860	Richard Doidge Neworthy Fanny Trist	Richard Doidge Nosworthy Fanny Trist 💍 1860/3935	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 21	Brook Street Nelson Brook Street Nelson	three weeks twelve mos	At the residence of W. Thos. Hayward Storekeeper Brook Street Nelson		27 June 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
28	19 June 1860	Thomas Ford Amelia Woolley	Thomas Ford Amelia Wooley 💍 1860/3673	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 19	Waimea West Hardy Street Nelson	sixteen years eighteen mos	At the residence of W. William Woolley Farmer Appleby Waimea East	William Woolley father	19 June 1860	Rev. Decimus Delamore
29	25 June 1860	Henry Edmondson Sarah Robinson	Henry Edmonston Sarah Robinson 💍 1860/3947	Widower Widow	Warehouseman	41 43	Bronti Street Nelson Bronti Street Nelson	eight years three years	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson		error - certificate not yet issued
30	29 June 1860	Hamilton Miles Louisa Smith	Hamilton Miles Louisa Smith 💍 1860/3938 Francis William Knowles Louisa Smith 💍 1860/2898	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	22 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	four days four days	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson		29 June 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder

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).