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 314

District of Nelson Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
64	27 August 1866	Samuel Wakely Elizabeth Scannal	Daniel Wakely Elizabeth Scammel 💍 1866/6901	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 25	City of Nelson Ditto	18 months 2 years	At the residence of Samuel Wakely Mariner Parere St. Nelson	860		20 September 1866	Rev. Patrick Calder
65	29 August 1866	Thomas Hunt Mary Hubbard	Thomas Hunt Mary Hubbard 💍 1866/6853	Bachelor Spinster	Vet. Surgeon	28 21	City of Nelson Waimea East	3 days 20 years	At the residence of Henry Hubbard farmer Waimea East	844		29 Aug	Rev. Robert S. Bunn
66	29 August 1866	Seth Sawyer Mary Brady	Seth Sawyer Mary Brady 💍 1866/6919	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	32 36	City of Nelson Ditto	2 years 14 years	At the residence of Henry Barterop willwright Nile Street East	866		29 Aug	Rev. John Davis
67	1 September 1866	James Taylor Elizabeth Neal	James Taylor Elizabeth Mary Esther Neal 💍 1866/6979	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 19	Richmond Suburban South	3 weeks 10 years	At Christchurch Nelson	889	Thomas Neal Father	5 September 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johnstone
68	4 September 1866	John Lammas Elizabeth Young	John Lemmas Elizabeth Young 💍 1866/6859	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	29 18	Richmond Richmond	8 years 18 years	At the residence of John Young Blacksmith Richmond	846	John Young Father	10 September 1866	Rev. Robt. S. Bunn
69	11 September 1866	Joseph Denham Martha Ann Kraft	Joseph Denham Martha Ann Kraft 💍 1866/6856	Widower Widow	Millwright	36 36	City of Nelson Ditto	1 week 1 week	At the residence of The Rev. Robert Bunn Wesleyan minister Richmond	845		11 September 1866	Rev. Robt. S. Bunn
70	26 September 1866	Thomas Halsted Harley Isabella Green	Thomas Halstead Horley Isabella Green 💍 1866/7042	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	21 19	City of Nelson Suburban South	21 years 19 years	At the residence of Edward Green gentleman Suburban South	911	Edward Green Father	26 September 1866	Rev. William Kirk
71	28 September 1866	John Henry Reardon Mary Agnes Childs	John Henry Reardon Mary Agnes Childs 💍 1866/7078	Bachelor Widow	Settler	24 33	City of Nelson Ditto	10 years 5 years	At the Catholic Church Nelson	924		28 September 1866	Rev. Auth. M. Gorin
72	28 September 1866	Charles Enderby Mary Ann Gentry	Charles Enderby Mary Anne Gentry 💍 1866/4211	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	27 18	City of Nelson Ditto	4 months 17 years	At the "Wakatu" Hotel Bridge St. Nelson	912	Charles Gentry Father	28 September 1866	Rev. William Kirk
73	28 September 1866	Benjamin Taylor Ellen McCam	Benjamin Taylor Ellen McCann 💍 1866/6904	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	31 30	City of Nelson Ditto	1 year 10 years	At the residence of Ellen Mc Cam widow Russell St. Nelson	861		28 Sept.	Rev. Patrick Calder

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).