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 218

District of Wellington Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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

19 February 1866

Richard Read Helch
Anne Winteringham

Richard Read Welch
Anne Winteringham
💍 1866/6292

Bachelor
Spinster

Peddler

23
18

Satta
Satta

many years
3 years

Church of England, Boyland

654

Henry Winteringham, Father

19 February 1866

The Rev. John Edwards Herring and others.

No	19
Date of Notice	19 February 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Read Helch	Anne Winteringham
BDM Match (97%)	Richard Read Welch	Anne Winteringham
	💍 1866/6292
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Peddler
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Satta	Satta
Length of Residence	many years	3 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Boyland
Folio	654
Consent	Henry Winteringham, Father
Date of Certificate	19 February 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Edwards Herring and others.

22 February 1866

Leonard Difon
Ann Ire Simon

Leonard Dixon
Ann McKinnon
💍 1866/6385

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

32
30

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
3 weeks

St Paul's Church, Thorndon

686

22 February 1866

The Rev. P.H. Maxwell and others.

No	20
Date of Notice	22 February 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Difon	Ann Ire Simon
BDM Match (69%)	Leonard Dixon	Ann McKinnon
	💍 1866/6385
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church, Thorndon
Folio	686
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P.H. Maxwell and others.

23 February 1866

Joseph Robinson
Mary Good

Joseph Robinson
Mary Igoe
💍 1866/6511

Joseph Robinson
Sarah Willis
💍 1866/6124

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
25

Makara
Wellington

5 years
6 weeks

Roman Catholic Chapel, St Mary's, Thorndon

729

10 March 1866

The Right Rev. Dr Viard and others.

No	21
Date of Notice	23 February 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Robinson	Mary Good
BDM Match (83%)	Joseph Robinson	Mary Igoe
	💍 1866/6511
BDM Match (63%)	Joseph Robinson	Sarah Willis
	💍 1866/6124
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Makara	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel, St Mary's, Thorndon
Folio	729
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1866
Officiating Minister	The Right Rev. Dr Viard and others.

26 February 1866

Daniel Morton
Eliza Cannon

Daniel Morton
Eliza Cannon
💍 1866/6610

Bachelor
Spinster

Horse breaker

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 week

Registrar's Office, Wellington

761

26 February 1866

The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington and others.

No	22
Date of Notice	26 February 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Morton	Eliza Cannon
	💍 1866/6610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horse breaker
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	761
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1866
Officiating Minister	The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington and others.

26 February 1866

Friderich Eilers
Anna Friderichs

Friderich Eilers
Anna Friederichs
💍 1866/6391

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker

33
18

Wellington
Wellington

11 mos.
2 years

St Paul's Church, Thorndon

688

There is no person residing within the Colony authorised by law to give consent to their marriage

26 February 1866

The Rev. P.H. Maxwell and others.

No	23
Date of Notice	26 February 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Friderich Eilers	Anna Friderichs
BDM Match (97%)	Friderich Eilers	Anna Friederichs
	💍 1866/6391
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	33	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 mos.	2 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church, Thorndon
Folio	688
Consent	There is no person residing within the Colony authorised by law to give consent to their marriage
Date of Certificate	26 February 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P.H. Maxwell and others.

2 February 1866

Charles Ticehurst
Cecilia Bolton

Charles Ticehouse
Cecilia Bolton
💍 1866/6388

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

26
18

Greytown, at present of Wellington
Wellington

3 days
many years

St Paul's Church, Thorndon

687

Frederick Bolton, Father

22 February 1866

The Rev. [UNCLEAR] and others.

No	24
Date of Notice	2 February 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Ticehurst	Cecilia Bolton
BDM Match (91%)	Charles Ticehouse	Cecilia Bolton
	💍 1866/6388
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Greytown, at present of Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	many years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Church, Thorndon
Folio	687
Consent	Frederick Bolton, Father
Date of Certificate	22 February 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. [UNCLEAR] and others.

9 March 1866

William Joseph Saunders
Harriet Bould

William Joseph Saunders
Harriett Bould
💍 1866/6250

Bachelor
Spinster

Grazier

23
18

Gairarapn, at present of Wellington
Wellington

9 days
18 years

Church of England, Johnsonville

638

Robert Bould, Father

9 March 1866

The Rev. Thomas Fancourt

No	25
Date of Notice	9 March 1866
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Joseph Saunders	Harriet Bould
BDM Match (96%)	William Joseph Saunders	Harriett Bould
	💍 1866/6250
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grazier
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Gairarapn, at present of Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 days	18 years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Johnsonville
Folio	638
Consent	Robert Bould, Father
Date of Certificate	9 March 1866
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Thomas Fancourt

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 1903. 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).