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 228

District of Wellington Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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

April 13th 1867

Joseph Bowater
Mary Ann Hills

Joseph Bowater
Mary Ann Hills
💍 1867/6127

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
many years

Residence of the Rev. J. Waters

002

April 13th 1867

The Rev. J. Waters and others

No	38
Date of Notice	April 13th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Bowater	Mary Ann Hills
	💍 1867/6127
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of the Rev. J. Waters
Folio	002
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 13th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J. Waters and others

April 13th 1867

Alfred Coombs Newton
Fanny Watson

Alfred Coombs Newton
Fanny Watson
💍 1867/6049

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer

33
About 30 years

Wellington
Wellington

3 weeks
3 days

St Peters Church

584

April 13th 1867

The Rev. Arthur Stock B.A. and others

No	39
Date of Notice	April 13th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Coombs Newton	Fanny Watson
	💍 1867/6049
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	33	About 30 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peters Church
Folio	584
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 13th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Arthur Stock B.A. and others

April 17th 1867

Edmund Marriott
Elizabeth Emily Louisa Tugwood

Edmund Marriott
Elizabeth Emily Louisa Tugwood
💍 1867/6052

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

31
21

Wellington
Wellington

16 years
about 2 months

St Peters Chancery

581

April 17th 1867

The Rev. A. Stock B.A., and others

No	40
Date of Notice	April 17th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Marriott	Elizabeth Emily Louisa Tugwood
	💍 1867/6052
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	31	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	about 2 months
Marriage Place	St Peters Chancery
Folio	581
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 17th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. A. Stock B.A., and others

April 18th 1867

Francis Fisk
Isabella Neal

Francis Fisk
Isabella Neal
💍 1867/6136

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
21

Porirua
Hutt

2 years
12 mos.

Private Residence the Rev. J. Waters Sydney Street

608

May 8th 1867

The Rev. J. Waters, and others

No	41
Date of Notice	April 18th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Fisk	Isabella Neal
	💍 1867/6136
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	12 mos.
Marriage Place	Private Residence the Rev. J. Waters Sydney Street
Folio	608
Consent
Date of Certificate	May 8th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J. Waters, and others

April 23rd 1867

William Smith Green
Mary Alexander

William Smith Green
Mary Alexander
💍 1867/6130

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

45
30

Wellington
Wellington

15 months
15 months

Residence of the Rev. J. Waters, Sydney Street

600

April 23rd 1867

The Rev. J. Waters and others

No	42
Date of Notice	April 23rd 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Smith Green	Mary Alexander
	💍 1867/6130
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	45	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 months	15 months
Marriage Place	Residence of the Rev. J. Waters, Sydney Street
Folio	600
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 23rd 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J. Waters and others

April 23rd 1867

George Thompson
Fanny Morgan

George Thompson
Fanny Morgan
💍 1867/6133

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
18

Porirua
Porirua

about 12 years
about 10 years

Primitive Methodist Chapel, Sydney Street

607

Thomas Morgan, Father

April 23rd 1867

The Rev. Charles Waters, and others

No	43
Date of Notice	April 23rd 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Thompson	Fanny Morgan
	💍 1867/6133
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	about 12 years	about 10 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Sydney Street
Folio	607
Consent	Thomas Morgan, Father
Date of Certificate	April 23rd 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Charles Waters, 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).