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 197

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
1	4 April 1863	George Rorison Agnes Garrand	George Rorison Agnes Gerrard 💍 1863/6979	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	41 35	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 1 month	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	510		6 April 1863	Rev. Patrick Calder
2	6 April 1863	Edmund Paul Elizabeth Jane Lineker	Edmund Paul Elizabeth Jane Lineker 💍 1863/6940	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 31	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 months 4 months	At Christ Church City of Nelson	495		10 April 1863	Rev. Henry Meysey Turton
3	10 April 1863	Henry Harris Elizabeth Weedon Lawson	Henry Harris Elizabeth Weeden Lawson 💍 1863/6982	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	29 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 1 week	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	511		14 April 1863	Rev. R. H. Codrington
4	14 April 1863	James Sheedy Ann Hurford	James Shedy Ann Hurford 💍 1863/6621	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	41 43	Waimea West Waimea West	2 years 2 years	At the Episcopalian Church Spring Grove	567		15 April 1863	Rev. Henry M. Turton
5	15 April 1863	George Frost Mary Northam	George Frost Mary Northam 💍 1863/6946	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 23	Suburban North Suburban North	12 years 13 years	At Christ church Nelson Bayeard	497		16 April 1863	Rev. William Moore Biss
6	16 April 1863	Walter Savery Kate Savage	Walter Lavery Kate Savage 💍 1863/6823	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	34 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 1 year	At the residence of Peter Middlemiss Joiner, Alma St. Nelson	548		17 April 1863	Rev. Patrick Calder
7	17 April 1863	Benjamin Fairhall Sarah Nevin Wallace	Benjamin Fairhall Sarah Niven Wallace 💍 1863/6985	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Wakefield Waimea East	17 years 1 year	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	512		24 April 1863	Rev. John Willm. Chas. Heine
8	24 April 1863	Frederick John Henry Lange Rosina Catharina Johanna Scheucher	Frederick John Henry Lange Rosina Cathrina Johanna Scheucher 💍 1863/6847	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 17	Waimea West Waimea West	5 years 13 years	At the residence of George Scheucher Shoemaker, Waimea West	556	George Scheucher, father	28 April 1863	The Lord Bishop of Nelson
9	28 April 1863	Charles Thomas Frances Anne Cooke	Charles Thomas Frances Anne Cooke 💍 1863/6943	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	34 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 year 2 years	At Christ church Nelson	496		4 May 1863	Rev. Patrick Calder
10	4 May 1863	George Perkins Charlotte Bunn	George Perkins Charlotte Bunn 💍 1863/6988	Bachelor Spinster	Gold digger	24 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 weeks 2 years	At the residence of Charles Gentry Hotel Keeper, Trafalgar St. Nelson	513	Elizabeth Woolf, mother	4 May 1863	Rev. Patrick Calder
11	4 May 1863	George Gillis Mary Ann Crowhurst	Gorge Gillis Mary Ann Crowhurst 💍 1863/6790	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	30 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 3 years	At the residence of Maryann Crowhurst Widow, Haven Rd. Nelson	537		4 May 1863	Rev. Edward Thomas
12	12 May 1863	Louis Franz Seibeth Mary Ann Celand		Bachelor Widow	Farmer	41 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 years	At the Catholic Church in Nelson	512		12 May 1863	Rev. Pierre Marie Michel
13	14 May 1863	William Cresswell Ann Green Gledhill	William Cresswell Ann Green Gledhill 💍 1863/6793	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	27 27	City of Nelson City of Nelson	21 years 2 years	At the Union (Baptist) Chapel Hardy St. Nelson	538		14 May 1863	Rev. Edward Thomas
14	18 May 1863	Charles Dray Emma Harvey	Charles Bray Emma Harvey 💍 1863/6952	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 6 years	At Christ church	499	William Harvey, father	18 May 1863	The Lord Bishop of Nelson

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).