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 310

District of Nelson Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
14	28 February 1866	Moses Irons Coleman Harriett White	Moses Irons Coleman Harriet White 💍 1866/7006	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 21	Wainea East Wainea East	10 years 10 years	At the residence of The Rev. William Kirk Hardy St: Nelson	899		28 February 1866	Rev. William Kirk
15	8 March 1866	Walter Fields Mary Ann Allen	Walter Fields Mary Ann Allen 💍 1866/7012	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	25 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	24 years 9 years	At the residence of William Fields Gardener Grove St: Nelson	901	Eliza Allen mother	8 March 1866	Rev. William Kirk
16	10 March 1866	James Shore Grace Martan	James Shore Grace Martin 💍 1866/6958	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	30 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 months 2 years	At Christ church Nelson	880		26 March 1866	Rev. Geo. Henry Johns
17	13 March 1866	Samuel Coles Elizabeth Robinson	Samuel Coles Elizabeth Robinson 💍 1866/6883	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 18 years	At the residence of Joseph Shaw Labourer wainea road nelson	853	Elizabeth Shaw mother	13 March 1866	Rev. Patrick Calder
18	13 March 1866	Thomas Hall Sarah Jane Tyrell	Thomas Hall Sarah Jane Tyrell 💍 1866/7009	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Wainea South Wainea South	3 years 20 years	At the residence of James Harman Farmer Wainea South	900		13 March 1866	Rev. William Kirk
19	14 March 1866	Alfred Edward Hibble Naomi Mathews	Alfred Edmund Hibble Naomi Mathews 💍 1866/7084	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk to Legislative Council	40 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 week 1 week	At the residence of Mrs C. Mathews widow Hardy St: Nelson	927		14 March 1866	Rev. Edward Thomas
20	15 March 1866	Robert Paull Matilda Eliza Haslam	Robert Paull Matilda Elisa Haslam 💍 1866/6886	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	39 31	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 year 10 years	At the residence of Emma Haslam widow Collingwood St. nelson	852		15 March 1866	Rev. Patrick Calder
21	16 March 1866	William Winter Mary Jane Armshong	William Winter Mary Jane Armstrong 💍 1866/7069	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	20 years 12 years	At the Catholic Church in Nelson	921		31 March 1866	Rev. Ant. Marie Gar
22	29 March 1866	William Enms Sarah Emily Jones	William Emms Amelia Emma Jones 💍 1866/7015	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 10 years	At the residence of James Kearse Labourer Bridge St. Nelson	902		29 March 1866	Rev. William Kirk
23	31 March 1866	William Enms Amelia Cunna Jones	William Emms Amelia Emma Jones 💍 1866/7015	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 10 years	At the residence of James Kearse Labourer Bridge St. nelson	902		31 March 1866	Rev. William Kirk
24	31 March 1866	Thomas Myllic McKenny Henzea Wooddon		Bachelor Widow	Store Keeper	34 28	City of Nelson Wainea South	3 days 3 weeks	At the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy St: Nelson	903		31 March 1866	Rev. William Kirk

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).