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 210

District of Nelson Quarter ending thirty first March 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
14	25 February 1864	George Porter Flower Eliza Allcot	George Porter Flower Eliza Allcot 💍 1864/7951	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Wainea East Wainea East	14 years 10 years	At the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	778		24 February 1864	The Registrar of marriages
15	27 February 1864	John Frost Anna Ms Donald	John Frost Emma McDonald 💍 1864/8073	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Suburban North City of Nelson	12 years 8 years	At Christ church Nelson	729	Ann Gray mother	29 Feby 1864	The Rev. Geo. Henry Johnshone
16	5 March 1864	Thomas Shirsiff Ann Cameron	Thomas Shirtliff Ann Cawthron 💍 1864/8329	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 6 years	Where residence of Thomas Cameron Collingwood Street	703		5 March 1864	The Rev. Will. Moore Biss
17	7 March 1864	Robert Simpson the younger Sarah Ann Thompson	Robert Simpson Sarah Ann Thompson 💍 1864/7894	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	23 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	14 years 20 years	At the residence of Robt Simpson the elder Washington Road	756		29 March 1864	The Rev. Patrick Calder
18	15 March 1864	James M Murray Charlotte Kite	James McMurray Charlotte Kite 💍 1864/7888	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	26 17	Richmond Richmond	2 years 17 years	At the residence of James M. Murray Baker Richmond	754	Lucy Kite mother	15 March 1864	The Rev. Patrick Calder
19	19 March 1864	Edmund George Woolcott Mary Anne Gilbert	Edward George Woolcott Mary Ann Gilbert 💍 1864/8299	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	29 19	Suburban North Suburban North	4 months 4 years	At the residence of Thomas Gilbert schoolmaster Suburban North	693	Thomas Gilbert father	19 March 1864	The Rev. Edward Thomas
20	24 March 1864	George Winter Margaret Hewart	George Winter Margaret Stewart 💍 1864/7900 George Winter Mary Beaton Brock 💍 1864/3835	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	22 years 8 years	At the residence of Daniel Stewart Labourer Wakapuaka road	758	Daniel Hewart father	not yet issued
21	26 March 1864	Walter Surney Rebecca Robinson	Walter Sturney Rebecca Robinson 💍 1864/7891	Bachelor Spinster	Billard marker	23 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	18 months 6 years	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	755	Joseph Robinson father	26 March 1864	The Rev. Patrick Calder
22	31 March 1864	William Flett Mary Ann McDonald	William Flett Mary Ann McDonald 💍 1864/7897	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	27 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 month 17 years	At the residence of Janet Ms Donald widow Bridge Street	757	Janet Mc Donald and mother	31 March 1864	The 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).