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 207

District of Wellington 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
54	12 November 1860	Peter Couper Ann Bell	Peter Couper Ann Bell 💍 1860/2889	Bachelor Spinster	Grazier	59 years 45 years	Paratahi Plain, Wairarapa, at present Wellington Karori	3 days 2 or 3 years	The Residence of the Rev. John Moir in Wellington		12 November 1860	The Rev. John Moir, and others
55	12 November 1860	Albert Martin Mary Ann Cropper	Albert Martin Mary Ann Cropper 💍 1860/2776	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	21 years 8 months 19 years	Oharin, near Wellington Berhampore, near Wellington	4 years 12 years	In the Private Residence of Albert Martin at Oharin	The consent of Ellen Inkersell, Mother of Mary Ann Cropper	12 November 1860	The Rev. John Warren, and others
56	12 November 1860	Charles Edward Willeston Hannah Bixmead	Charles Edward Walter Willeston Hannah Bidmead 💍 1860/2800	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 years 18 years	Mulgrave Street, Wellington Mulgrave Street	4 months 12 months	Private Residence of Mr. Jonathan Bixmead in Mulgrave Street	The consent of Jonathan Bixmead, father of Hannah Bixmead	12 November 1860	The Rev. Joshua Smith, and others
57	14 November 1860	Henry Bradley Mary Meredith	Henry Bradley Mary Meredith 💍 1860/2773	Bachelor Spinster	Mercantile Clerk	29 years 17 years	Wellington Otahuhu, near Auckland, at present Wellington	6 months 5 days	Private Residence of Mr. Henry Wrigley, Cuba Street	The consent of Michael Meredith, Father of Mary Meredith	14 November 1860	The Rev. John Warren, and others
58	13 December 1860	William Jones Emma Broderick	William Jones Emma Broderick 💍 1860/2767	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	about 35 years about 28 years	Rangitikei, at present Wellington Porirua Road, near Wellington	10 days many years	In the Private Residence of Mr. Greasley Broderick on the Porirua Road		13 December 1860	The Rev. William Kirton, and others
59	14 December 1860	Charles Millward Mary Barrdack	Charles Millward Mary Balldach 💍 1860/2770	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable Domestic Servant	28 years 22 years	Wellington Wellington	4 years 5 years	The Roman Catholic Church, known as St. Mary's situate at Thorndon		14 December 1860	The Right Rev. Dr. Viard, 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).