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 219

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1860

No	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
73	10 November 1860	William Frederick Arnold Catherine Prendergast	William Frederick Arnold Catherine Prandeegast 💍 1860/3703	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 years 2 years	At the Catholic Church in Nelson			10 November 1860	Rev. Ant. Marie Garin
74	16 November 1860	James Batten Mary Ann French	James Batten Mary Ann French 💍 1860/3664	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Waimea East Waimea East	5 days 3 months	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson			16 November 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
75	19 November 1860	Edward Thomas Ireland Rose Anne Smith	Edward Thomas Ireland Rose Ann Smith 💍 1860/3739	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 18 months	At the residence of W. John Hindley Austin, Lower Bridge St, Nelson			19 November 1860	Rev. Jonathan Innes
76	26 November 1860	William Ford Beaton Clara Adelaide Durley	William Ford Beatson Clara Adelaide Durley 💍 1860/3769	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	City of Nelson Stoke Suburban South	2 weeks 14 months	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Nelson			28 November 1860	Rev. Henry M. Turton
77	5 December 1860	John Barleyman Mary Saxon	John Barleyman Mary Saxon 💍 1860/3787	Bachelor Spinster	Officer of Customs	29 27	Waimea West Waimea West	6 days 1 year	At St. Michael's Church in Waimea West			5 December 1860	Rev. Samuel Poole
78	11 December 1860	James Noel Wilkinson Sarah Paterson Aitken	James Noel Wilkinson Sarah Paterson Aitken 💍 1861/1879	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper	22 17	Wakefield Hardy St, Nelson	4 months 10 years	At the residence of Robert Aitken, Hardy St, Nelson, Brewer		Alexander Aitken (father)	11 December 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
79	12 December 1860	George James Mary Ann Eleanor Ramsay	George James Mary Ann Eleanor Ramsey 💍 1860/3742	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 4 years	At the residence of W. Samuel Wakefield, Washington Valley, Nelson, Engineer			12 December 1860	Rev. Jonathan Innes
80	13 December 1860	Charles Thompson Anne Burns	Charles Thompson Ann Burns 💍 1861/4213	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 30	Wakefield City of Nelson	2 weeks 18 months	At the residence of W. Richard Tear, Farmer, Suburban South	12		13 December 1860	Rev. Patrick Calder
81	14 December 1860	John Paynter Ann King	John Poynter Ann King 💍 1860/3799	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	58 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 years 10 years	At the residence of John Paynter, Haven Road, Nelson			14 December 1860	Rev. Edward Thomas
82	21 December 1860	Benjamin Blick Charlotte Mills	Benjamin Blick Charlotte Mills 💍 1860/4051	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner	21 21	Brook St, Nelson Brook St, Nelson	1 year 1 year	At the residence of Benjamin Blick, Brook St, Nelson			21 December 1860	Rev. Edward Thomas

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).