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 245

District of Wellington Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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

123

November 25th 1867

Patrick Corkery
Ruth Spackman

Patrick Corkery
Ruth Spackman
💍 1867/5803

Bachelor
Spinster

Carrier

23
18

Greytown, at present Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

1 week
17 years

Residence of Mr George Spackman

494

George Spackman, Father

November 25th 1867

The Rev. Charles Waters and others

No	123
Date of Notice	November 25th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Corkery	Ruth Spackman
	💍 1867/5803
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carrier
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Greytown, at present Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	1 week	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr George Spackman
Folio	494
Consent	George Spackman, Father
Date of Certificate	November 25th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Charles Waters and others

124

November 25th 1867

George Little
Mary Ann Tyler

George Tattle
Mary Ann Tyler
💍 1867/6076

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

24
17

Wellington
Te Aro

2 years
3 years

St. Peters Church

589

William Tyler, father

November 25th 1867

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

No	124
Date of Notice	November 25th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Little	Mary Ann Tyler
BDM Match (92%)	George Tattle	Mary Ann Tyler
	💍 1867/6076
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Te Aro
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church
Folio	589
Consent	William Tyler, father
Date of Certificate	November 25th 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Arthur Stock, B.A. and others

125

December 2nd 1867

Thomas Taylor Cutbush
Agnes Langles Stoddart

Thomas Taylor Cutbush
Agnes Ingles Stoddart
💍 1867/5833

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

26
18

Wellington
Wellington

11 months
many years

Residence of Mrs E. Stoddart, Dixon Street

504

December 2nd 1867

The Rev. John Hall and others

No	125
Date of Notice	December 2nd 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Taylor Cutbush	Agnes Langles Stoddart
BDM Match (95%)	Thomas Taylor Cutbush	Agnes Ingles Stoddart
	💍 1867/5833
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	26	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 months	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs E. Stoddart, Dixon Street
Folio	504
Consent
Date of Certificate	December 2nd 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Hall and others

126

December 5th 1867

Henry Barbon
Philippa Jane Hought

Henry Barber
Philippa Jane Knight
💍 1867/5842

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

29
19

Wellington
Hutt

8 years
many years

St. James Church

507

James & Sarah J. Hought, Guardians

December 2nd 1867

The Rev. J. E. Herring and others

No	126
Date of Notice	December 5th 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Barbon	Philippa Jane Hought
BDM Match (84%)	Henry Barber	Philippa Jane Knight
	💍 1867/5842
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Hutt
Length of Residence	8 years	many years
Marriage Place	St. James Church
Folio	507
Consent	James & Sarah J. Hought, Guardians
Date of Certificate	December 2nd 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J. E. Herring and others

127

December 3rd 1867

William Sutherland Moss
Mary Ann Blackwell Smith

William Sumerland Moss
Mary Ann Blackwell
💍 1867/6160

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

32
26

Wellington
Wellington

nearly 5 years
6 years

Residence of Mr. John Chattle, Pipitea Point

510

December 3rd 1867

The Rev. C. Trotter and others

No	127
Date of Notice	December 3rd 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Sutherland Moss	Mary Ann Blackwell Smith
BDM Match (83%)	William Sumerland Moss	Mary Ann Blackwell
	💍 1867/6160
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	nearly 5 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. John Chattle, Pipitea Point
Folio	510
Consent
Date of Certificate	December 3rd 1867
Officiating Minister	The Rev. C. Trotter 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 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).