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 219

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1862

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
36	24 April 1862	Charles Edward Dowsett Annie Flinn	Charles Edward Dowsett Annie Flinn 💍 1862/4124	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 24	Nelson Nelson	One year Five years	At the residence of the Rev. Jonathan Innes, Washington road		10 May 1862	Rev. Jonathan Innes
37	10 May 1862	Thomas Nisbet Jane Lund	Thomas Nisbet Jane Lund 💍 1862/2143	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	Nineteen years Two years	At the residence of Edward Laney, Baker, Bridge street	Henry Lund, Father	10 May 1862	Rev. Edward Thomas
38	19 May 1862	James Mackay Ann Adney Shuckburgh	James Mackay Anne Adney Shuckburgh 💍 1862/4008	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	56 36	Suburban North Suburban North	Seventeen years Three months	At the Hillside School, Suburban North		19 May 1862	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
39	23 May 1862	James Revel Mary Sarten	James Revel Mary Sarten 💍 1862/4127	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	Nine months Twelve months	At the residence of Lucy Sarten, widow, Collingwood Street	Lucy Sarten, mother	23 May 1862	Rev. Jonathan Innes
40	26 May 1862	John Bennett Mary Warn	John Bennett Mary Warn 💍 1862/3957	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 29	City of Nelson City of Nelson	Three Days Three days	At Christchurch, Nelson		26 May 1862	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
41	4 June 1862	Daniel Chittenden Eliza Lancey	Daniel Chittenden Eliza Laney 💍 1862/4090	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	Five years Eighteen years	At the residence of William Lancey, Baker, Bridge Street	Edward Lancey, Father	4 June 1862	Rev. Patrick Calder
42	5 June 1862	James Mackay the younger Eliza Sophia Braithwaite	James Mackay Eliza Sophia Braithwaite 💍 1862/4011	Bachelor Spinster	Government officer	30 24	Collingwood Nelson	Two years Two years	Christ Church, Collingwood		5 June 1862	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
43	9 June 1862	Alfred Joseph Brown Sarah Elizabeth Berry	Alfred Joseph Brown Sarah Elizabeth Berry 💍 1862/4130	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	One year Nineteen years	At the Wesleyan Chapel, Hardy St. Nelson	Thomas Richard Berry, Father	24 June 1862	Rev. Jonathan Innes
44	17 June 1862	Jabez Ambrose Packer Mary Susan Nation	Jabez Ambrose Packer Mary Susan Nation 💍 1862/4060	Bachelor Spinster	Turner	27 18	Hardy Street Nelson Manuka Street Nelson	Nineteen years Four years	At the residence of William Nation, Printer, Manuka St. Nelson	William Nation, Father	17 June 1862	Rev. William Moore Bliss
45	21 June 1862	William Brown Eleanor Robinson	William Brown Eleanor Robinson 💍 1862/4142	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Happy Valley, Suburban North Happy Valley, Suburban North	Six years Seven months	At the office of the Registrar of marriages, Nelson	Joseph Robinson, Father	26 June 1862	The Registrar of marriages, Nelson
46	30 June 1862	William Henry Turner Isabella Mackay	William Henry Turner Isabella Mackay 💍 1862/4014	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	29 21	Suburban North Suburban North	Six months Ten years	At the Hillside School room, Suburban North		30 June 1862	Rev. Henry Meysey 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).