1862 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840374, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 181

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1862

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

27 October 1862

David Edward Nathan
Marion Barnett

David Edward Nathan
Marion Barnett
💍 1862/4475

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

36 years
20 years

Manganui, at present residing in Wellington
Wellington

9 days
14 days

In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wellington

No person resident within the colony of New Zealand having authority to give consent to the marriage of Marion Barnett

5 November 1862

The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington and others

No
Date of Notice	27 October 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Edward Nathan	Marion Barnett
	💍 1862/4475
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	36 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Manganui, at present residing in Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 days	14 days
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wellington
Folio
Consent	No person resident within the colony of New Zealand having authority to give consent to the marriage of Marion Barnett
Date of Certificate	5 November 1862
Officiating Minister	The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington and others

31 October 1862

William Summerfield
Fanny Maria Batcheldor Canning

William Summerfield
Fanny Maria Batcheldor Canning
💍 1862/4257

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer

31 years
27 years

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

8 years
many years

The Church of England at the Lower Hutt

31 October 1862

The Revd George Henry Johnstone and others

No
Date of Notice	31 October 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Summerfield	Fanny Maria Batcheldor Canning
	💍 1862/4257
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer
Age	31 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	8 years	many years
Marriage Place	The Church of England at the Lower Hutt
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1862
Officiating Minister	The Revd George Henry Johnstone and others

5 November 1862

Walter Blatchford
Ann Tuffs

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21 years and 6 months
20 years and 9 months

Hutt
Hutt

2 years about
about 9 years

In the Private Residence of Mr John Cole at the Hutt

Certificate not yet issued

No
Date of Notice	5 November 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Blatchford	Ann Tuffs
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21 years and 6 months	20 years and 9 months
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years about	about 9 years
Marriage Place	In the Private Residence of Mr John Cole at the Hutt
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Certificate not yet issued

8 November 1862

John Haslem
Harriett Burt

John Haslam
Harriet Burt
💍 1863/7750

Widower
Spinster

Mechanic

42 years
39 years

Upper Hutt
Lower Hutt

18 months
4 years

In the Wesleyan Chapel at the Lower Hutt

8 November 1862

The Revd John Aldred and others

No
Date of Notice	8 November 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Haslem	Harriett Burt
BDM Match (92%)	John Haslam	Harriet Burt
	💍 1863/7750
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	42 years	39 years
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	18 months	4 years
Marriage Place	In the Wesleyan Chapel at the Lower Hutt
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 November 1862
Officiating Minister	The Revd John Aldred and 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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).