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 226

District of Wellington Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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

March 13th 1867

Thomas George Osborn
Sarah Foules

Thomas George Osborn
Sarah Foulds
💍 1867/6124

Bachelor
Spinster

Shopman

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
6 months

Primitive Methodist Chapel Sydney Street

614

March 13th 1867

The Rev. b. Waters, and others

No	28
Date of Notice	March 13th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas George Osborn	Sarah Foules
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas George Osborn	Sarah Foulds
	💍 1867/6124
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shopman
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	6 months
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Chapel Sydney Street
Folio	614
Consent
Date of Certificate	March 13th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. b. Waters, and others

March 21st 1867

Roderick Mulhern
Eliza Power

Roderick Mulhern
Eliza Power
💍 1867/6088

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
20

Pahautanui
Makara

about 1 year
2 years

Roman Catholic Cathedral Thorndon

593

John Mr [UNCLEAR]

No	29
Date of Notice	March 21st 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roderick Mulhern	Eliza Power
	💍 1867/6088
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Pahautanui	Makara
Length of Residence	about 1 year	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral Thorndon
Folio	593
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	John Mr [UNCLEAR]

March 21st 1867

John Roberts
Emily Phelps

John Roberts
Emily Phelps
💍 1867/6046

Widower
Spinster

Clerk

30
20

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
2 years

St Peter's Church

579

James Phelps, father

March 29th 1867

The Rev Arthur Stock B.A., and others

No	30
Date of Notice	March 21st 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Roberts	Emily Phelps
	💍 1867/6046
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	2 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church
Folio	579
Consent	James Phelps, father
Date of Certificate	March 29th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev Arthur Stock B.A., and others

March 27th 1867

Henry Fisk
Mary Mercer McWilliams

Henry Fisk
Mary Mercer McWilliams
💍 1867/6043

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

24
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
15 mos.

St Peter's Church

578

There is no person in the Colony authorised by law to give consent to the marriage of the minor

March 27th 1867

The Rev A Stock B.A., and others

No	31
Date of Notice	March 27th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Fisk	Mary Mercer McWilliams
	💍 1867/6043
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	15 mos.
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church
Folio	578
Consent	There is no person in the Colony authorised by law to give consent to the marriage of the minor
Date of Certificate	March 27th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev A Stock B.A., and others

March 29th 1867

Alfred Lipman Levy
Mary Ann Warden

Alfred Lipman Levy
Mary Ann Mordin
💍 1867/5866

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

21
22

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
10 years

Wesleyan Chapel Manners Street

577

March 29th 1867

The Rev. Isaac Harding and others

No	32
Date of Notice	March 29th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Lipman Levy	Mary Ann Warden
BDM Match (90%)	Alfred Lipman Levy	Mary Ann Mordin
	💍 1867/5866
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Chapel Manners Street
Folio	577
Consent
Date of Certificate	March 29th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Isaac Harding and others

March 29th 1867

Hugh Bradfoot
Mary ann McGee

Hugh Bradfoot
Mary Ann McGee
💍 1867/5863

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

24
22

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
About 10 years

Wesleyan Chapel Manners Street

516

March 29th 1867

The Rev Isaac Harding, and others

No	33
Date of Notice	March 29th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Bradfoot	Mary ann McGee
BDM Match (96%)	Hugh Bradfoot	Mary Ann McGee
	💍 1867/5863
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	About 10 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Chapel Manners Street
Folio	516
Consent
Date of Certificate	March 29th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev Isaac Harding, and others

March 29th 1867

Donald Ross
Isabella Fisher

Donald Ross
Isabella Fisher
💍 1867/5932

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

37
30

Wellington
Wellington

nearly 4 years
above 1/2 year

Scotch Church St Andrew's Lambton Quay

539

March 29th 1867

The Rev Dr I Main, and others

No	34
Date of Notice	March 29th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Ross	Isabella Fisher
	💍 1867/5932
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	37	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	nearly 4 years	above 1/2 year
Marriage Place	Scotch Church St Andrew's Lambton Quay
Folio	539
Consent
Date of Certificate	March 29th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev Dr I Main, and others

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).