Intentions to Marry, 1863

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840375, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 198

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1863

No	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
34	20 May 1863	Matthew Macker Maria Murrell Grace	Matthew Walker Maria Murrell Grace 💍 1863/6826	Widower Widow	Master Mariner	43 35	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 years 7 years	At the residence of Matthew Walker	549		20 May 1863	Rev. William Moore
35	26 May 1863	John Webby Amelia Busch	John Whibby Amelia Busch 💍 1863/6811	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 21	Waimea East Waimea East	19 years 19 years	Hampden Terrace	544		26 May 1863	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
36	5 June 1863	Patrick Collins Julia Sullivan	Patrick Collins Julia Sullivan 💍 1863/6751	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 weeks 9 weeks	At the Catholic Church in Nelson	523		5 June 1863	Rev. Pierre Marie
37	6 June 1863	Thomas Slater Amy Pettitt	Thomas Slater Amy Pettitt 💍 1863/6796	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 month 12 years	At the Union Baptist Chapel	539		6 June 1863	Rev. Edward Thomas
38	8 June 1863	William Edwards Emily Turner	William Edwards Emily Turner 💍 1863/6949	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 years 3 months	At Christchurch Nelson	498		8 June 1863	Rev. Edward Thomas
39	15 June 1863	Thomas Hill Catharine Nicholson	Thomas Hill Catherine Rica Nicholson 💍 1863/6853	Bachelor Spinster	Officer H.M. Customs	31 20	City of Nelson Stoke Suburban South	5 years 2 months	At the residence of Will Rob. Nicholson Esq. Suburban South	558	Rev. Dickson Nicholson, Father	15 June 1863	The Lord Bishop of Nelson
40	17 June 1863	Edward Fowler Hannah Wagstaff	Edward Fowler Hannah Wagstaff 💍 1863/6814	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	Richmond Spring Grove	4 years 16 years	At the residence of the Rev. Decimus Dolamore Spring Grove	545		17 June 1863	Rev. Thomas Dickson
41	22 June 1863	John Duncan Elizabeth Smith	John Duncan Elizabeth Smith 💍 1863/6609 Mark George Newman Elizabeth Smith 💍 1863/4818	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 21	Fox Hill City of Nelson	1 month 6 years	At the residence of William Morrison, Farmer, Wai, itc	563		22 June 1863	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
42	24 June 1863	Frederick Gundy Margaret Beach	Frederick Cundy Margaret Beach 💍 1863/6760	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	25 29	Stoke Stoke	12 years 3 years	At the residence of Thomas Lidd, Stoke Brewer	527		24 June 1863	Rev. Samuel Poole
43	29 June 1863	William Christian Elizabeth Pahl	William Christian Frederick Kassebaum Elizabeth Pahl 💍 1863/3552	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 days 5 months	At the residence of William Pahl, Cooper Waimea Street	328	William Pahl, Father	30 June 1863	Rev. William Kirke

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).