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 233

District of Wellington Quarter ending Jul - Sep 1867 Registrar John Elisha Smith

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

20 June 1867

John Guilford
Frances McCafferty

John Guilford
Frances McCafferty
💍 1867/5854

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
nearly 16 years

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
15 years

Roman Catholic Chapel, Manners St

67/511

Patrick McCafferty, Father

5 July 1867

The Rev. John Ahern, and others

No	65
Date of Notice	20 June 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Guilford	Frances McCafferty
	💍 1867/5854
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	nearly 16 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel, Manners St
Folio	67/511
Consent	Patrick McCafferty, Father
Date of Certificate	5 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Ahern, and others

"Appeared in last quarter's returns."

No	66
Date of Notice
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties
	💍 "Appeared in last quarter's returns."
Condition
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

2 July 1867

Alfred Bradey
Jane Sutherland

Alfred Brady
Jane Sutherland
💍 1867/4263

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener

25
22

Wellington
Lyall's Bay

many years
many years

Residence of Mr. Alexander Sutherland, Lyalls Bay

67/543

2 July 1867

The Rev. John Moir and others

No	67
Date of Notice	2 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Bradey	Jane Sutherland
BDM Match (96%)	Alfred Brady	Jane Sutherland
	💍 1867/4263
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lyall's Bay
Length of Residence	many years	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Alexander Sutherland, Lyalls Bay
Folio	67/543
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Moir and others

4 July 1867

Edmund William Butler
Eliza Buckeridge

Edmund William Butter
Eliza Buckeridge
💍 1867/5983

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer

25
nearly 20 years

Hutt
Hutt

4 months
about 16 years

St Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon

67/557

Robert Buckeridge, Father

6 July 1867

The Rev. P. H. Maxwell M.A. and others

No	68
Date of Notice	4 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund William Butler	Eliza Buckeridge
BDM Match (98%)	Edmund William Butter	Eliza Buckeridge
	💍 1867/5983
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	25	nearly 20 years
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	4 months	about 16 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon
Folio	67/557
Consent	Robert Buckeridge, Father
Date of Certificate	6 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P. H. Maxwell M.A. and others

5 July 1867

George Baynes Birch
Rebecca Isaac

George Baynes Birch
Rebecca Isaac
💍 1867/6145

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

26
23

Wellington
Cuba Street

9 years
3 years

The Residence of said G. B. Birch, Ingestric Street

67/611

5 July 1867

The Rev. C. Waters, and others

No	69
Date of Notice	5 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Baynes Birch	Rebecca Isaac
	💍 1867/6145
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Cuba Street
Length of Residence	9 years	3 years
Marriage Place	The Residence of said G. B. Birch, Ingestric Street
Folio	67/611
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. C. Waters, and others

8 July 1867

Frederick Bisdie Chalmers
Ellen Moore

Frederick Bisdee Chalmers
Ellen Moore
💍 1867/5806

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
about 28 years

Wanganui at present, Wellington
Wellington

10 days
10 days

St Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon

67/495

8 July 1867

The Rt Rev. The Bishop of Wellington, and others

No	70
Date of Notice	8 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Bisdie Chalmers	Ellen Moore
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick Bisdee Chalmers	Ellen Moore
	💍 1867/5806
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	about 28 years
Dwelling Place	Wanganui at present, Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 days	10 days
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon
Folio	67/495
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rt Rev. The Bishop of Wellington, 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 1908. 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).