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 386

District of River Grey Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
154	16 November 1865	Benj. Taylor Osborne Ann Walsh	Benjamin Taylor Osborn Ammy Walsh 💍 1865/6935	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Barmaid	33 19	Revell Street Hokitika Revell Street	9 months 5m	Mr McFarlane House Revell Street	965	Mary Ann Walsh Sister	16 November 1865	Rev. B. Drake
155	16 Nov.	Patrick Brennan Mary Dougherty	Patrick Brennan Mary Dougherty 💍 1865/6953	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Hotelkeeper	33 22	Jones Creek Totara Shatover Hotel Revell Street	8 months 9 months	Shatover Hotel	970		16	Rev John McGinn
156	24	Arthur Walker Charlotte White	Arthur Walker Charlotte White 💍 1865/6938	Widower Spinster	Fruiterer None	43 29	Revell Street Hokitika Revell Street Hokitika	3 months 3	Walkers House	966		24	Rev. B. Drake
157	25	Thomas Sayle Elizabeth Jane McLaws	Thomas Sayle Eliza Jane McShane 💍 1865/6920	Bachelor Widow	Storekeeper	34 26	Kan Han Creek Woodstock	8 months 4	Mr McShane Store Kanieri	960		25	Rev. G. S. Harper
158	28	Hugh Leavitt Sarah Blake	Hugh Cassidy Sarah Clark 💍 1865/6956	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	25 28	Revell Street Hokitika Revell Street	11 months 2	Australian Hotel	971		28	Rev John McGinn
159	28	Augustus Boys Jane Jones	Augustus Boyes Jane Jones 💍 1865/6923	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	34 25	Kan Han Creek Kan Han Creek	8 months 3	Mr Boys House	961		28	Rev. G. S. Harper
160	29	Joseph Williams Bridget Casey	Joseph Williams Bridget Casey 💍 1865/6944	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist & Druggist	28 21	Revell Street Hokitika Greymouth	8 Months 3	Mr Williams Store Okaroa Greymouth	969		29	Rev. B. Drake
161	18 Decr	Peter Griffey Sarah Crossan	Peter Griffin Sarah Crosson 💍 1865/6959	Widower Spinster	Painter & Glazier Glazier	38 28	Beach Street Hokitika Fitzgerald Street Hokitika	9 Months 1 Week	Rev. Jno McGinn House Revell Street	972		18 Dec	Rev. J. McGinn

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).