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 257

District of Nelson 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
36		Arthur Robert Dudley Isabella Kilgour	Auther Robert Dudley Isobella Kilgour 💍 1865/6797	Vide last Return						919		25 July 1865	Rev. Edward Thomas
39	5 July 1865	Alexander Goend Dreyer Mary Wilkinson	Alexander Svend Dreyer Mary Wilkinson 💍 1865/6905	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	37 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 22 years	At the Office of The Registrar of marriages Nelson	955		11 July 1865	The Reg. of marriages (John Soynser)
40	4 July 1865	John Paynter Mary Ann Burlace	John Paynter Mary Ann Burlace 💍 1865/6740	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 16	Suburban South Suburban South	2 years 9 years	At the residence of The Rev. Will. Kirk Hardystreet Nelson	898	William Paynter Father	4 July 1865	Rev. William Kirk
41	8 July 1865	John Harris Ching Emma Jellyman	John Harris Ching Emma Jellyman 💍 1865/6743	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 22	Suburban North Suburban South	4 months 21 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel Suburbans.	899	William Burlace Father	8 July 1865	Rev William Kirk
42	27 July 1865	John Grooby Eliza Wratten	John Grosby Eliza Wratten 💍 1865/6848	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 20	Waimea West Waimea West	6 days 15 years	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	935	James Wratten Father	27 July 1865	Rev. Patrick Calder
43	28 July 1865	John George Richard Seadden Jane Seadden	John George Jane Scadden 💍 1865/6851	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 months 2 years	At the residence of Richard Seadden, senr. Washington Road	936		28 July 1865	Rev. Patrick Calder
44	28 July 1865	John Lethbridge Walbed yhll Elizabeth Garver	John Lethbridge D'Albedijhill Elizabeth Garner 💍 1865/6908	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 months 2 weeks	At the residence of Mrs. Anne Dunn Waimea Street	936		28 July 1865	Rev. Edward Thomas
45	29 July 1865	John Lethbridge Walbed yhll Elizabeth Garver	John Lethbridge D'Albedijhill Elizabeth Garner 💍 1865/6908	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 months 2 weeks	At the Office of The Registrar of Marriages Nelson	936		29 July 1865	The Reg. of Marriages (John Soynser)
46	17 July 1865	George Henry Statter Rachael Graves	George Henry Slatter Rachel Graves 💍 1865/6746	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 20	Nelson Nelson	3 days 6 days	At the residence of Sarah Statter Nile Street East Nelson	900	Abel Graves Father	5 Aug 1865	Rev. William Kirk
47	7 Augt.	James Marsh Margaret Sarsons	James Marsh Margaret Parsons 💍 1865/6752 James Marsh Elizabeth Eggerton 💍 1865/4748	Widower Widow	Labourer	39 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 months 5 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy Street Nelson	902		7 Aug 1865	Rev. William Kirk
48	9 Augt.	Charles Augustus Leopold Leov Phoebe Maria Sullivan	Charles Augustus Leopold Leon Phoebe Maria Sullivan 💍 1865/6779	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	39 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 20 years	At the Catholic Church Nelson	911		9 Augt.	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
49	22 Augt.	John Terry Margaret M Cormack	John Terry Margaret McCormick 💍 1865/6782	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	33 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 years 4 years	At the Catholic Church in Nelson	912		22 Aug.	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
50	23 Augt.	Alfred Allport Ellen Cummings	Alfred Allport Ellen Cummings 💍 1865/6812	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	35 30	Suburban South Suburban South	18 years 6 years	At the residence of John Brown, Farmer, Suburban North	914		23: Aug.	Rev. John Davis

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).