Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 214

District of Nelson Quarter ending thirtieth of September 1864

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
56	20 August 1864	Joseph Watkins Charlotte Mary Towler Hanks	Joseph Watkins Charlotte Mary Fowler Plank 💍 1864/7990	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Wainea South Wainea South	9 years 13 years	St Paul's Church Spring Grove	791		20 August 1864	The Lord Bishop of Nelson
57	23 August 1864	Stephen Sheat Charlotte Guittals	Stephen Sheat Charlotte Spitals 💍 1864/8049	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 20	Richmond Spring Grove	10 years 12 years	At the residence of William Gowan Spring Grove	719	Charlotte McGowan, mother	23 August 1864	Rev. William Kirk
58	29 August 1864	William Lightfoot Cousin Fanny Webb	William Lightfoot Cousin Fanny Webb 💍 1864/8097	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	28 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 16 years	Christ church Nelson	717	Joseph Webb, Father	29 August 1864	Rev. George Henry Johnstone
59	30 August 1864	George Leech Amelia Hamblem	George Leech Amelia Hamblyn Cudliff Sanders 💍 1864/8057	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	21 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 3 years	At the residence of George Leech Collingwood Street	722	James Saunders, Father	30 August 1864	The Rev. William Kirk
60	31 August 1864	Matthew Green Mary Wadsworth	Matthew Green Mary Wadsworth 💍 1864/7993	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	31 19	Wainea East Wainea East	6 years 19 years	At the Episcopalian Church Spring Grove	792	James Wadsworth, Father	31 August 1864	The Lord Bishop of Nelson
61	6 September 1864	George Dickens Susan Knox	George Dickens Susan Knox 💍 1864/8305	Bachelor Spinster	Paperhanger	33 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 years 14 months	At the Presbyterian Church Nelson	695		6 September 1864	The Rev. Patrick Calder
62	6 September 1864	James Coffey Elizabeth Goodman	James Coffey Elizabeth Goodman 💍 1864/8052	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 20 years	At the residence of Thomas Goodman Baker Collingwood Street	720	Thomas Goodman, Father	6 September 1864	The Rev. William Kirk
63	13 September 1864	Henry Harrison Elizabeth Clements	Henry Harrison Elizabeth Clements 💍 1864/8055	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	28 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 8 months	At the residence of george clements Gentleman Selwyn Place	721	Guorge Clements, Father	13 September 1864	The Rev. James Wallis

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).