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 212

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 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
35	17 May 1864	John Croucher Elizabeth Jary	John Croucher Elizabeth Jary 💍 1864/8037	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 21	Richmond Spring Grove	2 years 3 years	at the residence of [UNCLEAR] Hardy Street	715		17 May 1864	Rev. William Kirk
36	18 May 1864	John McVicar Marion Burns	John McVicar Marion Burns 💍 1864/7906	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	25 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 years 12 years	at the residence of [UNCLEAR] Builder Waimea Street	760		18 June 1864	Rev. Patrick Calder
37	7 June 1864	William Walker Ellen Friend	William Walker Ellen Friend 💍 1864/7912	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 weeks 2 years	at the residence of John [UNCLEAR] Jonas keeper Bridge Street	762		7 June 1864	Rev. Patrick Calder
38	9 June 1864	Theodor Rusman [UNCLEAR] Mercer	Theodor Rusman Emily Mercer 💍 1864/8085	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	32 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	8 months 8 months	at the Protestant Episcopalian Church Nelson	734		9 June 1864	Rev. George Henry Johnstone
39	13 June 1864	Thomas Muncaster Emily Hewston	Thomas Muncaster Emily Hewson 💍 1864/7915	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	26 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 months 10 months	at the Presbyterian Church Nelson	763		13 June 1864	Rev. Patrick Calder
40	15 June 1864	Louis Charles Drager Ellen Frances Giles	Louis Charles Drager Ellen Frances Giles 💍 1864/7945	Bachelor Spinster	Musician	25 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 18 months	at the Catholic Church in Nelson	776		15 June 1864	Rev. Jacques Marie Tressalet
41	21 June 1864	Peter Carter Gowland Emma Boddington	Peter Carter Gouland Emma Boddington 💍 1864/8040	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 20	Lower Wakefield Lower Wakefield	14 months 20 years	at the residence of the Rev. William [UNCLEAR] Wesleyan minister Washington Road	716	Peter Boddington father	21 June 1864	Rev. William Kirk
42	22 June 1864	James Reilly Sarah Jane Kearns	James Reilly Sarah Jane Kearns 💍 1864/3672	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	28 19	City of Nelson Waimea East	6 days 15 years	at the Catholic Church Nelson	775	Charles Peter Kearns father	22 June 1864	Rev. Pierre Marie Michel

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).