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 225

District of Wellington 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
19	February 19th 1867	Robert Wilson Jane Anne Mein	Robert Wilson Jane Anne Moir 💍 1867/5899	Bachelor Spinster	Station manager	27 24	Eurakena, Wairarapa Wellington	12 years 14 years	Private Residence	528		February 19th 1867	The Rev. John Moir, and others
20	February 21st 1867	David Atwood Eliza Helliwell		Widower Widow	Baker	30 31	Wellington Wellington	8 months 8 mo.	Residence of Mrs Peter Kitchen Willis Street	530		March 11th 1867	The Rev. John Moir and others
21	February 21st 1867	Alfred Walter Rudman Eliza Cloug	Alfred Walter Rudman Eliza Clout 💍 1867/10273	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 17	Wellington Wellington	18 years many years	Residence of Mrs Mary Cloug, Tinakori Road	515	Thos. Cloug, Father	February 21st 1867	The Revd. Isaac Harding and others
22	February 25th 1867	Charles Rosinsky Mary Carey	Charles Rossinsky Mary Parry 💍 1867/6040	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	37 37	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	St Peter's Church Te Aro	577		February 25th 1867	The Rev. A. Stock, B.A. and others
23	February 27th 1867	John William Arthur Ann Vallender	John Hillman Arthur Ann Vallender 💍 1867/6163	Widower Spinster	Farmer	40 29	Porirua Wellington	18 years about 6 months	Registrar's Office Wellington	1017		February 27th 1867	The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington, and others
24	February 27th 1867	James Headifen Eliza Elizabeth Bird	James Stendifen Eliza Elizabeth Bird 💍 1867/5929	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Cook	26 19	Wellington Wellington	about 2 years many years	Residence of Mr John Bird, Cuba Street	538	John Bird, Father	February 27th 1867	The Rev. Charles Waters and others
25	March 8th 1867	James Pether Jane Evangeline Isabella Paterson	James Proper Jane Evangeline Isabelle Paterson 💍 1867/5968	Bachelor Spinster	Livery Stable Keeper	25 21	Wellington Wellington	2 years 2 years	St Paul's Church Thorndon	552		March 9th 1867	The Rev. F.E. Matuell M.A. and others
26	March 12th 1867	Eogey Richard Peckham Beeching Elizabeth Calnan	George R P Beachcroft Elizabeth Calnan 💍 1867/6019	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 20	Wellington Wellington	About 2 years many years	Roman Catholic Chapel Manners street	570	David Calnan, Father	March 12th 1867	The Rev. J.J. P. O'Reilly and others
27	March 13th 1867	Thomas Roughts Patterson Jane Wilson	Thomas Rought Dallison Jane Wilson 💍 1867/6121	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	32 about 27 years	Pahautanui Wellington	2 years 6 months	Residence of Mr John Thope, Farmer, Hutt Valley	603		March 13th 1867	The Rev. C. Waters, and others

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).