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 305

District of Wairau Quarter ending Jul - Sep

No	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
7	18 July	Alfred Woolley Hannah Mills	Alfred Wooley Hannah Mills 💍 1867/7057	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	Lower Wairau Spring Creek	3 years 2 years	House of J.M. John Mills, Spring Creek	919		18 July	Rev. H. F. Butt
8	18 July	William Gosworthy Maria Tyler	William Nosworthy Maria Eyles 💍 1867/7060 William Corboy Maria O'Mara 💍 1867/7297	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	31 21	Blenheim Blenheim	6 years 3 years	Church of The Nativity, Blenheim	920		3 August	Rev. H. F. Butt
9	26 July	Samuel Carter Jessie Brydon	Samuel Carter Jessie Bryden 💍 1867/7075	Bachelor Spinster	Manager & Sheep Station	33 20	Altondale Omaka	7 years 12 years	House of W. Brydon, Omaka	923	William Brydon, Father	26 July	Rev. Robt. Russell
10	12 August	Alfred Hammond Ellen Nichols	Alfred Hammond Ellen Nichols 💍 1867/7078	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	24 20	Big Bush Big Bush	4 years 4 years	House of W. Nichols, Big Bush, Wairau	926	John Nichols, Father	12 August	Rev. H. F. Butt
11	23 August	John O'Brien Margaret Handiside Tannahill	John O'Brien Margaret MacLaggan Tannahill 💍 1867/7084	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 21	Flaxbourne Flaxbourne	4 years 1 year	House of Wm. Gillespie, Flaxbourne	928		24 August	Rev. Robt. Russell
12	28 August	James Waterhouse Wallis Jane Robertson McHutcheson	James Waterhouse Wallis Jane Robertson MacHutcheson 💍 1867/7081	Bachelor Spinster	Wesleyan Minister	25 29	Blenheim Blenheim	4 days 3 years	House of Mr. Mosley, Blenheim	929		28 August	Rev. Robt. Russell
13	29 August	William Shepherd Mary Anne Mulroy	William Shepheard Mary Anne Mulroy 💍 1867/7063	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	34 18	Blenheim Blenheim	7 years 9 months	Church of The Nativity, Blenheim	921		29 August	Rev. H. F. Butt

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).