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 151

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 December 1861

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
24	05 October 1861	Antony Mullins Johann Malone	Anthony Mullins Johanna Mahoney 💍 1861/2614	Bachelor Spinster	Private H.M. 65 Regt.	27 24	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 7 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Wanganui		09 October 1861	Rev. S. Pignard
25	07 October 1861	James Mathews Maria Hindley	"Mr Pegant stated that this marriage not solemnized"	Bachelor Widow	Private in H.M. 65 Regt	35	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 5	Roman Catholic Chapel Wanganui		7 October 1861	Rev J Pegant
26	21 October 1861	William Cracknell Mary Pribl		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	45 22	Rangitikei Manawatu	7 years 10 years	Native Church Manawatu		21 October 1861	Archdeacon Hadfield
27	02 November 1861	William Fairweather Russell Gertrude Maria Murray	William Fairweather Russell Gertrude Maria Murray 💍 1861/2840	Bachelor Spinster	........[?] Agent	26 24	Wanganui Wanganui	1 1/2 years 1 year	at Christ Church, Wanganui		11 November 1861	Rev. Chas. Nicholls
28	11 November 1861	Charles Mungo Harkness Jane Aiken	Charles Hartmann Jane Allen 💍 1861/1899	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster [UNCLEAR]	30 20	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 7 years	at the Residence of Mr Aiken, Wanganui	James Aiken, Father	11 November 1861	Rev. Chas. Nicholls
29	27 November 1861	John Russell Ann Harrison	John Russell Ann Harrison 💍 1861/2623	Bachelor Spinster	Painter [UNCLEAR]	33 20	Wanganui Wanganui	12 years 6 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Wanaganui	Fanny Harrison, mother	27 November 1861	Rev. S. Pignard
30	11 December 1861	Henry Hammond Ellen Cockburn	Henry Hammond Ellen Nichol Cockburn 💍 1861/2553	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman [UNCLEAR]	21 21	Rangitikei Wanganui	7 years 3	Wanganui		10 December 1861	Rev. B. Taylor
31	19 December 1861	Thomas Handley Eliz. Cummins	Thomas Handley Elizabeth Cummins 💍 1861/2593	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [UNCLEAR]	27 19	Wanganui Wanganui	20 3	at W. Cummins	John Cummins, Father	19 December 1861	Rev. W. Watkin

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).