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 196

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 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
1	6 January 1863	Joseph Thorpe Barlow Ellen Holmes	Joseph Thorpe Barlow Ellen Holmes 💍 1863/6817	Bachelor Spinster	Domestic Servant	24 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 months 4 months	At the residence of the Rev Wm. Biss, Baptist minister, Alton Street	546		6 January 1863	Rev. William Moore Biss
2	10 January 1863	Hiram William Harris Julia Ann Rutland	Hiram William Harris Julia Ann Rutland 💍 1863/8027	Bachelor Spinster	Catechist	25 27	Nelson City Nelson City	3 years 3 days	At Christ church Nelson	488		10 January 1863	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
3	12 January 1863	Charles Edward Cotterell Isabella Fortescue Croft Ruddleston	Charles Edward Cotterill Isabella Fortescue Huddleston 💍 1863/6922	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	28 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 7 years	At Christ church, Nelson	489		13 January 1863	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
4	15 January 1863	Thomas Tunnicliff Iuma Mary Minifred Bishop	Thomas Tunnycliff Mary Winifred Bishop 💍 1863/6603	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 24	Waimea South Waimea South	19 years 6 years	At the Episcopalian Church Waimea South	561	Frederick Huddleston, father	14 January 1863	Rev. Saml. Poole
5	15 January 1863	Hugh Corrigan Elizabeth Seymour	Hugh Corrigan Elizabeth Seymour 💍 1863/7006	Bachelor Widow	Stable Keeper	29 27	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 20 years	At the Catholic Church in Nelson	520		14 January 1863	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
6	15 January 1863	James Thomas Cattey Mary Martin	James Thomas Catley Mary Martin 💍 1863/6925 Samuel Brown Mary Martin 💍 1863/7073	Bachelor Spinster	Government Official	31 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 years 18 years	At the Episcopalian Church in Nelson	490		14 January [UNCLEAR]	[UNCLEAR]
7	17 January 1863	James Wadsworth Caroline Green	James Wadsworth Caroline Green 💍 1863/6805	Widower Widow	Farmer	53 54	Waimea South Waimea South	3 years 6 years	At the residence of Thomas Brown, farmer, Waimea South	542		17 January 1863	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
8	17 January 1863	James Thomas Cattey Mary Martin	James Thomas Catley Mary Martin 💍 1863/6925 Samuel Brown Mary Martin 💍 1863/7073	Bachelor Spinster	Government Official	31 24	City of Nelson Stoke Suburban South	7 years 18 years	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church Stoke	490		17 January 1863	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
9	19 January 1863	James Golding Elizabeth Wood	James Golding Elizabeth Wood 💍 1863/6973	Widower Widow	Cordwainer	37 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 5 years	At the residence of William Dalton, Carpenter, Nelson	506 + 507		19 January 1863	Rev. Patrick Calder
10	28 January 1863	William Gordon Robinson Holland Harriett Haslam	William Gordon Robinson Holland Harriet Haslem 💍 1863/6757	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 months 13 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel in Hardy Street, Nelson	526	Emma Haslam, widow, mother	28 January 1863	Rev. Jonathan Innes
11	27 January 1863	William Bale Andrew Mary Ann Batt	William Bale Andrew Mary Ann Batt 💍 1863/6820	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Wakefield Wakefield	1 month 10 years	At the residence of John Batt, Farmer, Wakefield	547	John Batt (father)	30 January 1863	Rev. William Moore Biss
12	10 February 1863	George Fairhall Mary Ann Tunnicliff	George Fairhall Mary Ann Tunnicliff 💍 1863/6606	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Wakefield Wakefield	18 years 18 years	At the Protestant Episcopalian church in Wakefield	562		10 February 1863	Rev. Samuel Poole
13	28 February 1863	Herbert Evelyn Curtis Ann Lineker	Herbert Evelyn Curtis Ann Lineker 💍 1863/6928	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	44 26	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 years 2 months	At Christ church Nelson	491		28 February 1863	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
14	3 March 1863	Alfred William Moore Catherine Harris	Alfred William Moore Catherine Harris 💍 1863/6976	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	28 24	Waimea Road, Nelson Collingwood Street, Nelson	2 years 3 years	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	518		3 March 1863	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).