Intentions to Marry, 1867

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840379, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 205

District of Wanganui 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
1	January 2 1867	John Bradley Ann Bradley	James Bradley Ann Bradley 💍 1867/6265	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	26 24	Wanganui do	3 mos 3 dys	At the Roman Catholic Chapel Wanganui	657		2 Jany	Revd. J. Pezant
2	Jany 12	Wm Harry Holt Hanna Frances Atkinson	William Henry Holl Hannah Frances Atkinson 💍 1867/6271	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	over under	Wanganui do	12 yr 11 -	At the Residence of Mr Atkinson	653	David Atkinson Father	12 Jany	Revd. J. Pezant
3	12	Martin Francis Coffey Ellen Ryan	Martin Francis Coffey Ellen Ryan 💍 1867/6268	Bachelor Spinster	Carptr & Joiner Servant	21 21	Wanganui do	5 yr 5 -	At the Roman Catholic Chapel	652		12 Jany	Revd. J. Pezant
4	15	John Duncan Cathrine Hammond	John Duncan Catherine Hammond 💍 1867/6331	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Wanganui Raunikaua	29 yr 22 -	At St Pauls Church Putike	644		15 Jany	Revd. B. Taylor
5	21	Henry Nevinson Harrison Louisa Maria Ross	Henry Nevinson Harrison Louisa Maria Ross 💍 1867/6241	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	29 23	Wanganui do	11 yrs 10 yrs	At Christ Church Wanganui	643		21 Jany	Revd. Ch. Nicholls
6	29	John Duncan Jessie Gow	There is a cross X in left column beside this entry.	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	34 22	Wanganui do	17 mns 4 yrs	At the Presbyterian Church Wanganui			29 Jany	Revd. D. Hogg
7	Feby 4	Percival P. Fortescue Agnes C Jenkins	Percival Tross Fortescue Agnes Crocker Jenkins 💍 1867/6202	Bachelor Spinster	Ensign, Military Settler	over over	Wanganui do	3 dys 1 yr	At the Residence of Mr Jenkins	630		4 Feby	Revd. A. Fitchett
8	14	James Allan Mary M Caines	James Allen Mary Margaret Caines 💍 1867/6301	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 14 & 1/2	Wanganui do	2 yrs 14 yrs	At St Pauls Church Putike	664	William Caines, Father	18 Feby	Revd. R. Taylor
9	March 11	Frederick Lewis Matilda P. Sheriff	Frederick Lewis Matilda Phobe Sherriff 💍 1867/6244	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	over under	Dunedin Wanganui	2 - 3 -	At the Episcopal Church Wanganui	644	Frances Sheriff, Father	11 March	Revd. C. Nicholls
10	March 27	George Beaven Roberta Cummins	George Beaven Roberta Cummins 💍 1867/6205	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	over over	Wanganui do	13 yrs 10 yrs	At the Residence of Mr Cummins	631		27 March	Revd. A. Fitchell
11	March 30	Anthony Nathan Sarah Ann Kells	Anthony Nathan Sarah Ann Kells 💍 1867/6208	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	23 23	Wanganui Wanganui	23 20	At the Residence of W. Harris Wanganui	632		30 March	Revd. G Filchett

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).