1865 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840377, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 187

District of Wellington Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
30	13 April 1865	Herbert Thomas Phillips Louisa Harris	Herbert Thos Phillips Louisa Harris 💍 1865/6158	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	22 23	Wellington Wellington	8 years 4 years	Scotch Church	698		13 April 1865	The Rev. James Stirling Muir, and others
31	15 April 1865	William McPherson Sarah Buckeridge	William McPhinn Sarah Buckeridge 💍 1865/6203	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	40 30	Wellington Wellington	2 years 1 year	Private Residence of William McPherson, Gluznee Street	715		15 April 1865	The Rev. John Moir, and others
32	18 April 1865	William Butter Buick Elizabeth Collett	William Butler Buick Elizabeth Collett 💍 1865/4193	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Pitone, Hutt Pitone, Hutt	12 years 18 years	St. James' Church		Henry Collett, father	18 April 1865	The Rev. John Edward Herring, and others
33	1 May 1865	Williamintosh Muir Mary Louisa Chappell	William McIntosh Muir Mary Louisa Chappell 💍 1865/6206	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 24	Wellington Wellington	many years 8 years	Residence of Mr. Henry Chappell	716		1 May 1865	The Rev. John Moir, and others
34	1 May 1865	John William Matthews Christina Isabella Stoddart	John William Matthews Christina Isabella Stoddart 💍 1865/4367	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 19	Wellington Wellington	18 mos 1 year	Residence of Mrs. James Stoddart		Christina Stoddart, mother	1 May 1865	The Rev. Isaac Harding, and others
35	2 May 1865	Robert Mabey Mary Winteringham	Robert Mabey Mary Winteringham 💍 1865/6290	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 20	Hutt Hutt	upwards of 2 years about 9 years	Residence of Mr. Robt. Mabey	746	Henry Winteringham, father	2 May 1865	The Rev. John Edward Herring, and others
36	5 May 1865	Walter Grey Margaret Griffiths	Walter Grey Margaret Griffiths 💍 1865/6209	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	22 20	Wellington Wellington	8 months 3 months	Residence of Mrs. Styles	717	No person resident within the Colony of New Zealand authorized by law to give consent to the marriage of Margaret Griffiths	5 May 1865	The Rev. John Moir, and others

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).