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 207

District of Wanganui Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
23	11 July 1865	John Edward [UNCLEAR] Hope Anna Jones	John Edward Wright Hussey Hannah Jones 💍 1865/6002	Bachelor Spinster	Trooper Servant of Husband	28 15	Wanganui Wanganui	1 year 1 year	At St. Pauls Church Wanganui	639	Joseph Jones, Father	11 July 1865	Revd. R. Taylor
24	24 July 1865	Cornelius Symmes Elizabeth Doreen		Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	24 21	Turakina Turakina	5 years 5 years	At Mr. Grower Residence Turakina	649		24 July 1865	Revd. R. Allenworth
25	25 July 1865	Geo. Frederick Baker Henrietta Jane Muirhead	George Frederick Baker Henrietta Irene Mailman 💍 1865/6032	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	22 19	Wanganui Wanganui	3 years 10 years	At the residence of the Bride's Father	642	John Muirhead, Father	July 25	Revd. A. Gilfillan
26	27 July 1865	Thomas Pedley Elizabeth Audsley	Thomas Pedley Elizabeth Anderson 💍 1865/6029	Bachelor Spinster	Private in 4th Regt. N.Z.A.	25 15	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 4 years	At the Registry Office, Wanganui	648	William Audsley, Uncle	July 27	Revd. A. Fitchett
27	29 July 1865	Michael Phelan Rose Anna Coleman	Michael Phelan Rosa Anna Colgan 💍 1865/5960	Bachelor Spinster	Corp. 4th Regt.	38 21	Wanganui Wanganui	8 years 2 years	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	625		July 29	Revd. Mr. Clermont
28	11 August 1865	William Bappett Ann Bappett	William Bassett Ann Bassett 💍 1865/4137 William Bassell Ann Bassett 💍 1865/9619	Bachelor Spinster	Corp. 47th Regt.	27 21	Wanganui Wanganui	14 years 18 years	At the Residence of Bride			August 11	Revd. A. Fitchett
29	16 August 1865	Joseph Stansell Emelia Stansell		Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	over 21 over 21	Wanganui Wanganui	18 years 2 years	At Christ Church Wanganui	611		August 16	Revd. Chas. Nicholls
30	18 August 1865	Frederick White Mary [UNCLEAR]riched		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	over 21 25	Wanganui Wanganui	5 years 3 years	At St. Pauls Church Wanganui	640		August 18	Revd. R. Taylor
31	28 August 1865	Henry Brown Eliza Brooks	Henry Brown Eliza Radford 💍 1865/3995	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 18	Manawatu Manawatu	6½ years 2 years	At Mr. Cook Manawatu	653	Thomas Brooks, Guardian	[UNCLEAR]
32	7 September 1865	Julien Goile Emma Prince	Julius Charles Goile Emma Prince 💍 1865/6047	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 19	Rangitiki Rangitiki	4 years 9 years	At the Residence of Mr. Prince Rangitiki	655	Edward Prince, Father	Sep. 7
33	11 September 1865	William Drover Elizabeth Taylor	William Evers Elizabeth Maxwell 💍 1865/5105 William Hunter Elizabeth Ross 💍 1865/8162 William Stephens Elizabeth Palmer 💍 1866/5356 William Scott Elizabeth Walmsley 💍 1865/4775 William Brooking Elizabeth Broadmore 💍 1865/5900 William Andrews Elizabeth Skelton 💍 1865/7307 William Astle Elizabeth Ruff 💍 1865/6722 William Hall Elizabeth Bray 💍 1865/7247 William Hannan Elizabeth Pye 💍 1866/5188 William Ibbolt Elizabeth Staymaker 💍 1865/6035 William Sinclair Elizabeth Wilson 💍 1865/7118 William Rossiter Elizabeth Smith 💍 1865/7319 William Semmens Elizabeth Grimes 💍 1866/4930	Bachelor Widow	Private	44 46	Wanganui Wanganui	11 years 2 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel Wanganui	660		Sep. 11	Revd. A. Fitchett

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

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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).