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 316

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
87	3 November 1866	William Robert Cassell Emma Coles	William Robert C McVicar Emma Coles 💍 1866/6907	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Schoolmistress	26 19	City of Nelson Suburban South Stoke	15 years 2 weeks	At the residence of John Jimpet Smith, Schoolmaster, Stoke	862	Sarah Smith, Mother	3 November 1866	Rev. Patrick Calder
88	5 November 1866	Arthur Dudley Dobson Eleanor Lewis	Arthur Dudley Dobson Eleanor Lewis 💍 1866/6991	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	25 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 months 10 years	At Christchurch	893	Henry Lewis, Father	5 November 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johnstone
89	12 November 1866	John Nebley Amelia Harwood	John Webley Amelia Harwood 💍 1866/6922 John Fahey Isabella Harwood 💍 1866/4456	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 4 years	At the residence of John Webley, Composer, Vanguard St. Nelson		George Harwood, Father	12 November 1866	Rev. John Davis
90	19 November 1866	John Day Elizabeth Sage	John Day Elizabeth Page 💍 1866/4214	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Suburban North Suburban North	10 years 21 years	At the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Suburban North	894		19 December 1866	Rev. Geo. H. Johnstone
91	24 November 1866	John Bown Emma Dalton	John Bowie Emma Dalton 💍 1866/7099	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 8 years	At the residence of William Dalton, Carpenter, Milton St. Nelson	932	William Dalton, Father	24 Nov	Rev. Edw. Thomas
92	11 December 1866	James Crichton Emily Eban	James Crichton Emily Eban 💍 1866/7060	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 19	Waimea South Waimea West	1 year 10 years	At the residence of the Rev. William Kirk, Hardy St. Nelson	918	Emma Eban, Mother	13 December 1866	Rev. William Kirk
93	13 December 1866	Robert Macintyre Margrek Jane Deck	Robert Macintyre Margaret Jane Deck 💍 1866/6637	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	25 23	City of Nelson Wellington	3 days 2 years	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages Wellington	770		13 December 1866	Registrar of Marriages Wellington
94	14 December 1866	John Hogg Ellen Bush	John Hogg Ellen Bush 💍 1867/6739	Bachelor Spinster	Maltster	30 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 5 years	At Christchurch
95	18 December 1866	Robert Henry Bartlett Mary Elizabeth Fletchers	Robert Henry Bartlett Mary Elizabeth Fletcher 💍 1867/6742	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	19 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 years 4 months	At Christchurch		Emma Bartlett, Mother	not yet issued
96	18 December 1866	Elijah Ingham Jane Roberts		Bachelor Widow	Miner	30 31	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 4 years	At Christchurch			not yet issued
97	20 December 1866	William Dwyer Mary Schroder	William O'Dwyer Mary Shroder 💍 1867/6715 William Davey Mary Ann Kerr 💍 1866/9445	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	Richmond Richmond	20 years 3 weeks	At the Catholic Church in Nelson	886/67		20 December 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).