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 026

District of Wellington 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	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
8	23 February 1860	Edward Lochyer Sangfen Sarah Jones	Edward Lockyer Ingpen Sarah Jones 💍 1860/2749	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	25 years 19 years	Wellington Wellington	3 years 17 years	The Church known as St Peter's in Willis Street		Francis Jones, Father of Sarah Jones	23 February 1860	The Rev. Arthur Stock B.A. and others
9	27 February 1860	Charles Parker Harriet Ellen Philips	Charles Parker Harriett Ellen Philps 💍 1860/2978	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 years 17 years	Wainui-mata Wainui-mata	2 years 14 years	At the private residence of Mr John Phillips in Wainuiomata	18/2/18. 701/60	John Philips, Father of Harriet Ellen Philips	12 March 1860	The Rev. R. L. Vickers, and others
10	5 March 1860	Dennis Lynch Louisa Swords	Dennis Lynch Louisa Swords 💍 1860/2737	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	41 years 31 years	Wainui Wellington	5 days 1 month	The Roman Catholic Chapel in Manners Street			5 March 1860	The Rev. J. S. P. O'Reilly, and others
11	7 March 1860	Robert Douglas Wallace Ellen Oakley	Robert Doyle Wallace Ellen Oakley 💍 1860/2731	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	34 years 22 years	Cape Turnagain Wellington	1 month 4 years	St Paul's Church, Thorndon in Wellington			7 March 1860	The Right Rev. The Bishop of Wellington and others
12	14 March 1860	James Davidson Agnes Walker	James Davidson Agnes Walker 💍 1860/2886	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 years 21 years	Wellington Wellington	3 days 2 and a half years	In the Private residence of James Davidson in Ghuznee Street			14 March 1860	The Rev. John Main & others
13	16 March 1860	George Fyffe Catherine Douglas Fyffe	George Fyffe Katherine Douglas Fyffe 💍 1860/2712	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	33 years 35 years	Kaihorae Wellington	10 days 10 days	The Private Residence of the Rev. James Buller in Manners Street			16 March 1860	The Rev. James Buller & others
14	20 March 1860	Joseph Wilson Chisholm Elizabeth Gell	Joseph Wilson Chisholm Elizabeth Gell 💍 1860/2718	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 years 21 years 8 months	Cuba Street, Wellington Cuba Street, Wellington	about 2 years 17 years	In the Private residence of Joseph Wilson Chisholm in Cuba Street			20 March 1860	The Rev. James Buller & 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).