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 180

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 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
16	09 February 1861	Thomas Frederick Goddard Victorine Rogers	Thomas Frederick Goddard Victorine Rogers 💍 1861/3790	Widower Spinster	Publican	39 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 5 months	At the residence of Thomas Frederick Goddard, Brook Street	no person in N.Z having authority to consent	09 February 1861	Rev. Jonathan Innes
17	16 February 1861	Henry Leigh Yates Mary Louisa Ann Lawrence	Henry Leigh Yates Mary Louisa Ann Laurence 💍 1861/4216	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 22	Waimea East City of Nelson	10 days 11 months	At the residence of Mary Elizabeth Harris, Richmond		16 February 1861	Rev. Patrick Calder
18	27 February 1861	Osborne Gazzard Susannah Smith	Osborne Gazzard Susannah Smith 💍 1861/4219	Bachelor Widow	Baker	32 32	Fox Hill Fox Hill	4 months 5 years	At the Shipwrights Arms, Haven Road		27 February 1861	Rev. Patrick Calder
19	02 March 1861	William Satherley Sarah Ann Hurford	William Satherley Sarah Ann Hurford 💍 1861/3762	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 18	Waimea West Waimea West	2 years 12 months	At the Office of the Registrar of marriages, Nelson	Ann Hurford (Mother)	02 March 1861	John Poynter (Registrar)
20	04 March 1861	Henry Hounsell Eliza Bollen	Henry Hounsell Eliza Bollen 💍 1861/3733	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper's assistant	26 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 year 7 days	At the residence of Henry Hounsell, Collingwood Street		04 March 1861	Rev. Edward Thomas
21	11 March 1861	Vincent Hewitt Josephine Greaves	Vincent Hewitt Josephine Greaves 💍 1861/3695	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	29 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 days 8 months	At the Protestant Church in Nelson	Eliza Greaves (Mother)	11 March 1861	The Rev. H. Meysey Turton
22	11 March 1861	George Jacobs Jessey Somerville	George Jacobs Jessy Somerville 💍 1861/4228	Bachelor Spinster	Perfumer	26 26	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 months 14 days	At the residence of Samuel Madman, Bridge Street
23	16 March 1861	William Jeffries Caroline Thompson	William Jeffries Caroline Thompson 💍 1861/3811	Widower Widow	Labourer	44 41	Waimea South Waimea South	17 years 1 year	At the residence of William Jeffries, Spring Grove		16 March 1861	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
24	23 March 1861	George Eves Caroline Sellers	George Eves Caroline Sillers 💍 1861/3808	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Waimea South Waimea South	16 years 3 years	At the residence of Robert Sharp, Spring Grove		23 March 1861	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
25	28 March 1861	Henry Minsett Mary Jane Dane	Henry Wimsitt Mary Jane Dane 💍 1861/3735	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 years 18 years	At the residence of Thomas Martin Minsett, Hardy Street	Jane Minsett (Mother)	28 March 1861	Rev. Edward Thomas
26	30 March 1861	Alexander MacFarlane Margaret Angus	Alexander McFarlane Margaret Angus 💍 1861/4222	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	35 28	Grove Street Nelson Brook Street Nelson	5 years 6 months	At the residence of Alexander Stewart, Milton Street		30 March 1861	Rev. Patrick Calder

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).