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 315

District of Nelson Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
74	1 October 1866	Charles Nicoll Sarah Ann Horn		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	City of Nelson Appleby	3 days 1 month	At the residence of James Poppleton Horn farmer Appleby	847	James Soppleton Horn, Father	1 October 1866	Rev. Robt. S. Bunn
75	1 October 1866	James Hargreaves Catherine Mary Owen		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 months 4 years	At the Anchor Haven R. Nelson	863	Declaration "no one in Jr.: having authority"	1 October 1866	Rev. Edw. Thomas
76	6 October 1866	Frederick Small Sarah Jane Seymour	Frederick Small Sarah Jane Seymour 💍 1866/6982	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 18	Waimea South Waimea South	12 years 18 years	At Christchurch Nelson	890	Richard Seymour Father	6 October 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johnstone
77	8 October 1866	John Keen Clara Ann Stratford	John Keen Clara Ann Stratford 💍 1866/7063	Bachelor Spinster	Chair maker	29 17	Aniseed Valley Aniseed Valley	2 years 7 years	At the Protestant Euiscopalian church in Waimea East	919	William Stratford Father	23 October 1866	Rev. W. David Robt. Lewis
78	10 October 1866	Thomas Hudson Lavinia Hawker	Thomas Hudson Lavinia Hawken 💍 1866/7045	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 2 weeks	At the Ship Hotel Haven R. Nelson	913		10 October 1866	Rev. William Kirk
79	13 October 1866	Ludwig John Wendelborn Anna Sophia Lampp	Ludwig John Windelborn Anna Sophia Lampe 💍 1866/6946	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 18	Waimea East Waimea West	15 years 8 years	At the Lutheran Church Rampau Waimea East	2025	John Lampp Father	13 October 1866	Rev. Jno. F. Ch: Heine
80	13 October 1866	John Betie Jane Cresswell	John Betie Jane Cresswell 💍 1866/7057	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 19	Suburban South Suburban South	5 weeks 14 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel Stoke	917	Edward Cresswell father	29 October 1866	Rev. Will. Kirk
81	15 October 1866	James Morecombe Mary Home	James Morcombe Mary Stone 💍 1866/6985	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	41 26	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 months 5 days	At Christ Church Nelson	891		15 October 1866	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone
82	18 October 1866	Burehard Franz Frenzen Eliza Small	Burchard Franzen Eliza Small 💍 1866/7066	Bachelor Spinster	Tail maker	32 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 4 years	At the Protestant Eriscopalian church Suburban South	920		18 October 1866	Rev. Chs. Fredrick Maclean
83	25 October 1866	John William Potter Eliza Adda	John William Potter Eliza Adda 💍 1866/6988	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	29 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 months 1 year	At Christchurch Nelson	892		25 October 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johnstone
84	30 October 1866	John William Wilkinson Elizabeth Paysmer	John William Wilkinson Elizabeth Paynter 💍 1866/7051	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	23 19	City of Nelson Suburban South	3 weeks 2 years	At the residence of John William Hall Dyer Grove St: Nelson	915	William Saynter Father	30 October 1866	Rev. Will. Kirk
85	30 October 1866	Thomas Anslow Mary M. Gregor	Thomas Anslow Mary McGregor 💍 1866/7054	Widower Spinster	Draper	54 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 years 6 years	At the residence of Thomas Anslow Draper Trafalgar St: Nelson	916		30 October 1866	Rev. Will. Kirk
86	30 October 1866	Alexander McKay Caroline Freeling	Alexander McKay Caroline Kelling Bowcher 💍 1866/6931 Alexander McKay Mary Gray 💍 1866/7615	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	36 31	Waimea West Waimea West	11 months 8 years	At the Catholic Church in Nelson			30 October 1866	Rev. Ant. Marie Garin

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).