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 312

District of Nelson Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
38	14 May 1866	Edwin Thomas Lucy Price	Edwin Thomas Lucy Price 💍 1866/6937	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	26 19	Wainea West Mainea West	14 years 19 years	at St Paul's Church Spring Grove	872	Thomas Price, Father	14 May 1866	late Bishop of Nelson
39	14 May 1866	Gordon Ponsonby Amy Watts	Gordon Ponsonby Amy Watts 💍 1866/7027	Widower Spinster	Master Mariner	38 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 22 years	at the residence of John Watts, Engineer Bridge end Nelson	906		14 May 1866	Rev. William Kirk
40	31 May 1866	James Nuttall Margaret MeThennied	James Nuttall Kate MacKenzie 💍 1866/7033	Bachelor Spinster	Messenger P.O.	30 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	8 years 6 months	at the Residence of James Nuttall Grove St: Nelson	908	Decl. no person in NZ having authority to consent 1 June Rev. William Kirk	1 June 1866	Rev. Edward Thos
41	1 June 1866	John James Ann M. Cuat	John James Ann McCuat 💍 1866/7093	Bachelor Widow	Miner	28 26	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 10 years	at the residence of John Ladd Wainea road	930		1 June 1866	Rev. Edward Thos
42	1 June 1866	Wilhelm Johann Gohnsan Julia Sulivan	Wilhelm Johann Gohenson Julia Sullivan 💍 1866/7081	Widower Widow	Labourer	31 34	Wanea West Maimea West	7 years 2 years	At the Catholic Chapel Wainea West	925		16 June 1866	Rev. Ant. M. Gar
43	2 June 1866	William Best James Makilda Coster	William Best Agnes Matilda Coster 💍 1866/6844	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 22	Appleby Richmond	20 years 10 years	at the residence of Richard Wallis P.O. Richmond	841		2 June 1866	Rev. Robt. S. Bunn
44	5 June 1866	Cornelius Hebberd Jessie Stewart	Cornelius Hibbard Jessie Stewart 💍 1866/6895	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Suburban North City of Nelson	19 years 10 years	at the residence of Daniel Stewart, Laborer Campden St. Nelson	859	Daniel Stewart Father 5 June	5 June 1866	Rev. Patrick Cald
45	8 June 1866	Paiura le Rangikatatu Kate Megan		Widower Spinster		40 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 week 8 months	At the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy St: Nelson	907		8 June 1866	Rev. William Kirk
46	13 June 1866	George Whale Jessie Goddard	George Whale Jessie Goddard 💍 1866/6964	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 weeks 4 years	At Christ church Nelson	883		13 June 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johns
47	14 June 1866	George Lines Sarah Thomason	George Lines Sarah Thomason 💍 1866/6847	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 18	Hope Wanea East Spring Grove	21 years 8 years	At the residence of Thomas Lines, farmer Hope	842	Esmey Thomason Father 14 June	14 June 1866	Rev. Robt. S. Bunn
48	14 June 1866	John Brown Maria Hollis	John Brown Maria Hollis 💍 1866/6967	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	21 18	Suburban South Suburban North	12 years 14 years	at Morewisch: Suburban north	884	James Hollis Father 14 June	14 June 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johnston
49	18 June 1866	George Jones Elizabeth Sharp	George Jones Elizabeth Sharp 💍 1866/6910	Widower Spinster	Electro Plater	53 38	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 years 18 months	at the residence of Josep Webley, cloth maker Brook St. Nelson	863		18 June 1866	Rev. John Davis
50	21 June 1866	Robert Stewart Mary Browne	Robert Stewart Mary Brown 💍 1866/6970	Bachelor Spinster	Gold miner	34 30	Suburban North Suburban North	4 months 16 months	At Christ church Nelson	886		21 June 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johns

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).