Intentions to Marry, 1866

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840378, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 215

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1866 Registrar John Elisha Smith

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

3 January 1866

William Lamb
Annie Hickie

William Lamb
Annie Hickey
💍 1866/6496

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
8 days

Roman Catholic Chapel, known as "St Mary's" Thorndon

66/724

3 January 1866

The Right Rev. Dr. Ward, and others.

No	1
Date of Notice	3 January 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Lamb	Annie Hickie
BDM Match (92%)	William Lamb	Annie Hickey
	💍 1866/6496
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	8 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel, known as "St Mary's" Thorndon
Folio	66/724
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1866
Officiating Minister	The Right Rev. Dr. Ward, and others.

10 January 1866

Henry Godden Harris
Martha Lamb Burrell

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Widow

Coachdriver

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

4 mos
2 mos

"St Peter's" Church, Te Aro

29 January 1866

The Rev. Arthur Stock, B.A., and others.

No	2
Date of Notice	10 January 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Godden Harris	Martha Lamb Burrell
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Coachdriver
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 mos	2 mos
Marriage Place	"St Peter's" Church, Te Aro
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Arthur Stock, B.A., and others.

13 January 1866

James John Warden Gowing
Caroline Ann Blaker

James John Warden Gowing
Caroline Ann Blaker
💍 1866/6379

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist &Dentist

31
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
17 years

St Paul's Church Thorndon

66/684

George Edmund Blaker, Father

13 January 1866

The Rev. P.H. Maxwell, M.A., and others.

No	3
Date of Notice	13 January 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James John Warden Gowing	Caroline Ann Blaker
BDM Match (98%)	James John Warden Gowing	Caroline Ann Blaker
	💍 1866/6379
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist &Dentist
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church Thorndon
Folio	66/684
Consent	George Edmund Blaker, Father
Date of Certificate	13 January 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P.H. Maxwell, M.A., and others.

15 January 1866

John Fitzgerald
Fanny Phelin

John Fitzgerald
Fanny Phelan
💍 1866/6499

Bachelor
Widow

Messenger

32
31

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
7 years

Roman Catholic Chapel, known as "St Mary's" Thorndon

66/725

15 January 1866

The Rev. J.B. Petit Jean, and others

No	4
Date of Notice	15 January 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fitzgerald	Fanny Phelin
BDM Match (96%)	John Fitzgerald	Fanny Phelan
	💍 1866/6499
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Messenger
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel, known as "St Mary's" Thorndon
Folio	66/725
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J.B. Petit Jean, and others

111

16 December 1865

Alexander Nicol
Grace Alexander

Alexander Nicol
Grace Alexander
💍 1866/6352

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
22

Porirua
Porirua

14 months
4 days

Residence of James Mitchell Porirua

66/675

2 January 1866

The Rev. James S Muir, and others.

No	111
Date of Notice	16 December 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Nicol	Grace Alexander
	💍 1866/6352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	14 months	4 days
Marriage Place	Residence of James Mitchell Porirua
Folio	66/675
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. James S Muir, and others.

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 1908. 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).