Intentions to Marry, 1861

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840373, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 11 2024

Page 149

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 1861

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
14	11 July 1861	Charles John Webster Sophia Isabella Gorham	Charles John Clark Sophia Isabella Graham 💍 1861/2556	Bachelor Spinster	Captain in H.M. 57 Reg.	31 24	Wanganui Wanganui lately from Sydney	3 weeks	at the Church of England Wanganui	31 July 1861	Rev. Charles S. Nicholls
15	22 July 1861	James Pilkington Margaret Welch	James Pilkington Margaret Walsh 💍 1861/2608	Bachelor Spinster	Private in H.M. 65 Regt	34 24	Wanganui Wanganui	9 years 6 months	at the Roman Catholic Chapel Wanganui	24 July 1861	Rev. S. Bryant
16	22 July 1861	William Cooper Johanna Johnston	William Cooper Johanna Johnston 💍 1861/2581	Bachelor Spinster	in H.M. 65 Regt.	33 27	Wanganui Wanganui	6 years 12 months	at the Wesleyan Chapel Wanganui	23 July 1861	Rev. W. Watkins
17	26 July 1861	Frederick Richard Parks Mary Aitken	Frederick Richard Parkes Mary Aiken 💍 1861/1871	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 19	Wanganui do	18 years 6 months	at Mr. W. Aitken's Residence Wanganui	26 July 1861	Rev. D. Hogg
18	20 August 1861	John Rowe Mary Jane Walker	John Row Mary Jane Walker 💍 1861/2569	Bachelor Spinster	farm servant	23 18	Rangitikei do	4 years 6 months	at the Residence of Thos Walker Rangitikei	20 August 1861	Rev. D. Hogg
19	18 September 1861	John Burke Julia Summer Withers	John Burke Julia Summer 💍 1861/2605	Bachelor Spinster	private in H.M. 65 Regt.	24 30	Wanganui do	8 years 18 months	Roman Catholic Chapel Wanganui	19 September 1861	Rev. S. Bryant
20	21 September 1861	Alexander Cree Ann Livingston	"Not married V a second letter from registrar"	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	35 35	Turakina Turakina	8 months 6 years	at the Residence of Mr D Richardson	21 September 1861	Rev. D. Hogg
21	25 September 1861	William Pawson Elizabeth Parker	William Pawson Elizabeth Parker 💍 1861/2584	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 18	Wanganui do	2 months 18 years	at the Residence	25 September 1861	Rev. W. Watkins
22	28 September 1861	John Grogan Mary Mahony	John Grogan Mary Mahoney 💍 1861/2617	Bachelor Spinster	in H.M. 57 Regt.	33 22	do do	3 months 4 years	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	28 September 1861	Rev. W. Watkins
23	30 September 1861	John Davis Follett Mary Ann Maher	John Davis Collard Mary Ann Mahar 💍 1861/2587	Bachelor Spinster	private in H.M. 65 Regt.	24 18	do do	7 years 7 years	at the Wesleyan Chapel	30 September 1861	Rev. W. Watkins

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).