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 329

District of River Grey 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
149	7 March 1866	William Harbinson Elizabeth Brooks	William Harbison Elizabeth Brooks 💍 1866/8503	Bachelor Spinster	Waterman	23 22	Gibsons Quay Hokitika Revell Street Hokitika	6 months	House of Rev. B. Drake	1426		14 March 1866	Rev. B. Drake
150	12 March 1866	Donald McLeod Flora McLean	Donald McFee Flora McLean 💍 1866/8314	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 26	Arahaura River Red Lion Hotel Gibsons Quay Hokitika	7 months 3 weeks	Wesleyan Church	1358		12 March 1866	Rev. G. S. Harper
151	13 March 1866	John Allen Bridget Quinlan	John Allen Bridget Cullen 💍 1866/8506	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	29 30	Okarita Ross Town	13 months 12	Residence of Rev. B. Drake Hokitika	1427		13 March 1866	Rev. B. Drake
152	12 March 1866	Michael Lyons Mary Theresa Smith	Michael Clyons Mary Theresa Smith 💍 1866/8383	Bachelor Widow	Engineer	24 27	Greymouth Revell	3 months 1 week	Catholic Church	1383		13 March 1866	Rev. G. E. Royes
153	13 March 1866	Joseph Harris Mary Jones	Joseph Harris Horn Mary Jones 💍 1866/8317 Charles Thomas Harding Mary Jones 💍 1866/4267	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	32 17	Rush Sheet Hokitika Revell Sheet	10 months	Bull & Mouth Hotel Revell Street	1359	Annie Rae, mother	13 March 1866	Rev. G. S. Harper
154	14 March 1866	William Gray Ellen Wiltshire	William Gray Ellen Wiltshire 💍 1866/8386	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Barmaid	24 22	Grey mouth Boundary Street Greymouth	9 months 3 m	Charley Napier Hotel Greymouth	1384		14 March 1866	Rev. G. E. Royes
155	15 March 1866	George Gray Mary Ann Wiltshire	George Gray Mary Ann Wiltshire 💍 1866/8389	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	22 21	Greymouth Greymouth	6 months	Catholic Church Greymouth	1385		15 March 1866	Rev. G. E. Royes
156	19 March 1866	James McCullough Sarah Hawkins	James McCullough Sarah Hawkins 💍 1866/8347	Bachelor Widow	Publican	27 26	Albion Hotel Gibsons Quay Gibsons Quay	12 months 12	Registrar's Office	1369		19 March 1866	Edward Cullen
157	28 March 1866	Edward Masters Jane McGollo	Edward Masters Harriet Jane McCaller 💍 1866/6889	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	27 23	Greymouth Boundary Street Greymouth	2 months	Own Residence Boundary Street Greymouth	855		28 March 1866	Rev. W. Gammell

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).