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 163

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 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
494	1 January 1864	Charles Jeffcott Jemima Hicks	Charles Jefcott Jemima Hicks 💍 1864/8853	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	30 18	Wanganui	3 yrs	at the Wesleyan Chapel	494	John Hicks, Father	January 1864	Revd W. Watkin
495	19 January 1864	John Harrow Margaret Dunn	John Carroll Margaret Dunn 💍 1864/8856	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	28 21	Wanganui	2 yrs	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	495		February 1864	Revd J. Pezant
496	22 January 1864	John Rolfe Isabella Buchett	Jesse Rolfe Isabella Burket 💍 1864/8683	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	27 43	Wanganui	6 yrs	at the Wesleyan Chapel	496		January 1864	Revd W. Watkin
497	2 February 1864	Andrew Watt Jepis Maria Riddle	Andrew Watt Jessie Main Liddell 💍 1864/8689	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Wanganui	4 yrs	at the Wesleyan Chapel	497	John Riddle, Father	February 1864	Revd W. Watkin
498	23 January 1864	John Chapman Mary Ann Gower	John Chapman Mary Ann Gower 💍 1864/8692	Bachelor Spinster		21 19	Wanganui	12 yrs	at the Residence of Wm Gower	498	Wm Gower, Father	February 1864	Revd C. St. Hill
499	February 1864	Edward Hall Charlotte Jarvis	Edward Hale Charlotte Sanders 💍 1864/8694 Edward Pavitt Charlotte Abbott 💍 1864/7105	Bachelor Widow	Sawyer	43 42	Rangitikei	4 yrs	at the Residence of J. Hall	499		March 1864	Revd J. Pezant
500	February 1864	James Willis Mary Francis Bynon	James Willis Mary Frances Byrne 💍 1864/3877 James Willis Mary Driscoll 💍 1864/9278	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	40 14.5	Wanganui	12 yrs	at the District Church	500	John Bynon, Father	March 1864	Revd J. Fitchett
501	21 February 1864	Thomas Evans Matilda McDerpy	Thomas Scowen Matilda McDory 💍 1864/8697	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 21	Wanganui	7 yrs	at the District Church	501	Patrick McDerpy, Father	March 1864	Revd D. Hogg
502	22 February 1864	Robinson Coupe Susanna William	Robinson Coupe Susannah Witham 💍 1864/8700	Widower Widow	Laborer	43 40	Wanganui	7 yrs	at the Residence of Mr Pickup	501		March 1864	Revd D. Hogg
503	28 February 1864	Robert Humper Helene Carter	Robert Humber Helen Carter 💍 1864/8703	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 21	Wanganui	3 yrs	at Parish Church Patea	503		March 1864	Revd R. Taylor

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).