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 235

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

24 July 1867

Edward Chew
Eliza Earp

Edward Chew
Eliza Earp
💍 1867/6151

Widower
Widow

Farmer

57 years
about 55 years

Hutt
Hutt

over 1 week
many years

Residence of said Eliza Earp, Hutt

67/613

13 August 1867

The Rev. C. Waters and others

No	76
Date of Notice	24 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Chew	Eliza Earp
	💍 1867/6151
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Farmer
Age	57 years	about 55 years
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	over 1 week	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of said Eliza Earp, Hutt
Folio	67/613
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 August 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. C. Waters and others

26 July 1867

Thomas Henry Jones
Amelia Barbara Jane Crosbie

Thomas Henry Jones
Amelia Barbara Jane Crosbie
💍 1867/5986

Widower
Spinster

Gentleman
Lady

36
21 years & 20 days

Wellington
Wellington

3 weeks
1 year

St Paul's Cathedral Thorndon

67/558

26 July 1867

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

No	77
Date of Notice	26 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Jones	Amelia Barbara Jane Crosbie
	💍 1867/5986
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Gentleman	Lady
Age	36	21 years & 20 days
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	1 year
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral Thorndon
Folio	67/558
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P. H. Maxwell M. A. and others

29 July 1867

Howard Charles Jacobson
Margaret Dougherty

Howard Charles Jacobson
Margaret Dougherty
💍 1867/6061

Bachelor
Spinster

Gentleman

25 years
18 years

Wellington
Wellington

2 months
many years

Residence of Mrs S Dougherty, Ghuznee Street

67/584

Sarah Dougherty, Mother

29 July 1867

The Rev. Arthur Stock B.A. and others

No	78
Date of Notice	29 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Charles Jacobson	Margaret Dougherty
	💍 1867/6061
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gentleman
Age	25 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 months	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs S Dougherty, Ghuznee Street
Folio	67/584
Consent	Sarah Dougherty, Mother
Date of Certificate	29 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Arthur Stock B.A. and others

29 July 1867

Thomas Bowler
Eleanor Perry

Thomas Bowler
Eleanor Perry
💍 1867/6172

Bachelor
Widow

Farmer

44 years
36 years

Porirua
Porirua

about 6 years
about 23 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

67/620

29 July 1867

The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington, and others

No	79
Date of Notice	29 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Bowler	Eleanor Perry
	💍 1867/6172
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Farmer
Age	44 years	36 years
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	about 6 years	about 23 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	67/620
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Registrar of Marriages for the District of Wellington, and others

31 July 1867

William Scott Dixon
Anna Mirian Hewitt

William Scott Dixon
Anna Miriam Hewitt
💍 1867/5989

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

25 years
23 years

Wellington
Wellington

over 2 years
many years

St Paul's Cathedral Thorndon

67/559

31 July 1867

The Rev. P. H. Maxwell and others

No	80
Date of Notice	31 July 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Scott Dixon	Anna Mirian Hewitt
BDM Match (97%)	William Scott Dixon	Anna Miriam Hewitt
	💍 1867/5989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	25 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	over 2 years	many years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral Thorndon
Folio	67/559
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P. H. Maxwell and others

August 7th 1867

William Nelmes Grant
Mary Ann Enright

William Helms Grant
Mary Anne Enright
💍 1867/5857

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

22 years
19 years

Wellington
Wellington

6 month
4 months

Roman Catholic Chapel Manners Street

67/513

No person residing in the Colony authorized by law to give consent to her marriage.

7 August 1867

The Rev. John Ahern, and others

No	81
Date of Notice	August 7th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Nelmes Grant	Mary Ann Enright
BDM Match (92%)	William Helms Grant	Mary Anne Enright
	💍 1867/5857
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	22 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 month	4 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel Manners Street
Folio	67/513
Consent	No person residing in the Colony authorized by law to give consent to her marriage.
Date of Certificate	7 August 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Ahern, 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).