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 429

District of Runetaw Quarter ending 30 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
27	17 July 1864	Richmond Dawson Ellen Darling	Richard Dawson Ellen Darling 💍 1864/5280	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 29	Alexandra Alexandra	2 years 15 months	Registered Office	1964	27 July 1864	Henry Shalford
28	25 July 1864	Sidney Tudor Emma Skelton	Henry Tudor Emma Sheldon 💍 1864/5379	Bachelor Spinster	Herrysman	28 23	Teviot Teviot	18 months 6 months	Residence	1918	25 July 1864	James Teviott
29	28 July 1864	George McLaughlan Mary Hughes	George McLachlane Mary Hughes 💍 1864/5436	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Teviot Teviot	18 months 4 months	Residence	1919	25 July 1864	James Teviot
30	2 August 1864	Robert Ross Barbara Macbeth	Robert Ross Barbara McBeth 💍 1864/5283	Bachelor Spinster	Observer of Stations	33 31	Long Valley Long Valley	16 months 3 weeks	Registrars Office	1965	9 August 1864	Henry Shalford
31	4 August 1864	John Marston Le Feure Ellen Quinlian	John Marston Le Fevre Ellen Quintian 💍 1864/5286	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 24	Burnt Creek Burnt Creek	5 months 5 months	Registrars Office	1966	9 August 1864	Henry Shalford
32	12 August 1864	William Price Catherine Sutherland	William Braving Annie Sutherland 💍 1864/6885	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	32 22	Teviot Junction Teviot Junction	2 years 6 months	Tauranga	1916	12 August 1864	Rev. James Teviot
33	3 September 1864	Robert Burkton Currie Elizabeth Stidell	Robert Rushton Currie Elizabeth Stedell 💍 1864/5289	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper	40 32	Clyde Clyde	12 months 12 months	Registrars Office	1967	22 Sept 1864	Henry Shalford
34	24 Sept 1864	James Cain Mary Ann Clancy	James Cain Mary Ann Clancy 💍 1864/5368	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	31 24	Hamilton Hamilton	2 years 6 months	Instrument Room	1934	26 Sept 1864	Rev. Philip Martin
35	26 Sept 1864	James Miller Annie Bray	James Miller Annie Bray 💍 1864/5265	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 25	Clyde Clyde	2 years 6 months	Registrars Office	1968	28 Sept 1864	Henry Shalford

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).