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 182

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 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
43	25 May 1861	George Petherick Hesther Chamberlain	George Petherick Hesther Chamberlain 💍 1861/3765	Bachelor Widow	Joiner	35 25	Richmond Waimea East Hope Waimea East	3 years 10 years	At the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson		25 May 1861	John Poynter Registrar
44	29 May 1861	Owen M. Keoghan Anna Maria Jacobsen	Owen McKoghan Anna Maria Jacobsen 💍 1861/3668	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 months 10 years	At the Catholic Chapel in Nelson	Johann Sigismund Martin Jacobsen, FATHER	29 May 1861	Rev? Aut: M. Garin
45	30 May 1861	William James Rodgerson Mary Beitt	William James Rogerson Mary Beitt 💍 1861/3701	Bachelor Spinster	Officer in H.M.Customs	25 27	City of Nelson City of Nelson	20 years 3 years	At Christ Church Nelson		30 May 1861	Rev. Henry M. Turton
46	1 June 1861	Edmund Dennins Anne Swan	Edmund Jennins Anne Swan 💍 1861/3724	Bachelor Spinster	Gold digger	27 19	City of Nelson Waimea East	3 months 4 months	At the protestant Church Waimea East	no person in N.Z authorized to consent	1 June 1861	Rev. Rot. Henry Codrington
47	12 June 1861	William Lloyd Susannah Jones	William Lloyd Susannah Jones 💍 1861/3796	Bachelor Widow	Miner	29 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 18 months	At the residence of Charles Bray Joi Soi St: Nelson		12 June 1861	Rev. Jonathan Innes
48	12 June 1861	Thomas Mc. Farlane Emma Trass	Thomas McFarlane Emma Trass 💍 1861/3814	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	23 18	Waimea South Waimea South	3 years 16 years	At the residence of Thomas Mc. Farlane Sawyer Waimea South	Joseph Trass, FATHER	12 June 1861	Rev. D. Dolamore
49	12 June 1861	Hugh Beattie Esther Davies	Hugh Beattie Esther Davies 💍 1861/4041	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 year 3 years	At the Victoria Hotel Haven Road		12 June 1861	Rev. Patrick Calder
50	14 June 1861	William Lane Ann Bird	William Lane Ann Bird 💍 1861/3638	Bachelor Spinster	Writing clerk	23 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 18 years	At the residence of Ann Bird Trafalgar St. Nelson	Ann Bird, MOTHER	14 June 1861	Rev. Edward Thomas
51	21 June 1861	John Allen Katherine Mc. Nab	John Allen Katherine MacNab 💍 1861/1672	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in law office	31 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 weeks 3 years	At Christ Church Nelson		21 June 1861	Rev. Henry M. Turton

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).