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 322

District of Nelson Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
12	18 Febry 1867	John Staples Susanna Boyce	John Staples Susannah Boyce 💍 1867/6799	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 1 week	at the residence of John Slatter Nile Street East	832	Certificate from the Registrar Motueka	18 Febr 1867	Rev. William Kirk
13	22 Februa 1867	Mungo Syme Catherine Shannon	Mungo Symes Catherine Shannon 💍 1867/6592	Bachelor Spinster	Merchants clerk	29 26	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 20 years	at the Presbyterian Church Nelson	763		9 Mch 1867	Rev. Patrick Calder
14	23 Febru 1867	Robert Small Emma Hughes	Robert Small Emma Hughes 💍 1867/6850	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 20	Waimea South Waimea South	10 years 14 years	at S. Paul's Ch: Spring Grove	831	Harriet Hughes mother	6 Mch 1867	Rev. Arthur Towgood
15	27 Febr 1867	Michael Hurgan Mary Ann O'Connor	Michael Harrigan Mary Ann O'Connor 💍 1867/6721	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 18	Waimea West Suburban South	2 weeks 2 years	at the Catholic Church in Nelson	808	Declar no person in N.Z. having authority	27 Febr 1867	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
16	5 mch 1867	John Burngate Harriet Harvey	John Bungate Harriet Harvey 💍 1867/6760	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Suburban North Suburban North	20 years 14 years	at Protestant Episcopalian church Suburban north	821		5 mch 1867	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone
17	11 mch 1867	Playford Chapman Stone Sarah Newport	Playford Chapman Stone Sarah Newport 💍 1867/6871	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 21	Appleby Appleby	1 year 16 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	858		11 mch 1867	Registrar of marriages
18	15 mch 1867	Frederick Main Harriet Emily Betts	Frederick Main Harriet Emily Betts 💍 1867/6808	Bachelor Spinster	Hair dresser	24 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 year 19 years	at the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy Street Nelson	837	Alfred Geo: Father Betts	21 Mch 1867	Rev. William Kirk
19	21 mch 1867	Samuel Lucas Elizabeth Hannah Blick	Samuel Lucas Elizabeth Hannah Blick 💍 1867/6805	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 months 14 years	at the residence Brougham Street	836	George Blick Father	21 Mch 1867	Rev. William Kirk
20	21 mch 1867	James Roberts Spicer Margaret Kemp	James Robert Spicer Margaret Kemp 💍 1867/6802	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	29 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 days 4 days	at the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy Street Nelson	835		21 Mch 1867	Rev. William Kirk
21	21 mch 1867	Alfred Elliott Mary Frances Robinson	Alfred Elliott Mary Frances Robinson 💍 1867/6772	Bachelor Spinster	Bankers clerk	21 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	15 years 6 months	at Christchurch Nelson	825		not yet issued
22	22 mch 1867	Allison Richardson Walker Elizabeth Currin	Allison Richardson Walker Elizabeth Currin 💍 1867/4612	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	24 20	Wakefield Wakefield	24 years 20 years	at the Protestant Episcopalian Lower Wakefield	857	John Currin Father	22 Mch 1867	Rev. Francis Tripp
23	22 mch 1867	Charles Timms Margaret Connell	Charles Timms Margaret Connell 💍 1867/6874	Widower Widow	Sheep farmer	57 40	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	859		22 mch 1867	Registrar of marriages
24	25 mch 1867	Horatio Nelson Firth Catherine O'Sullivan	Horatio Nelson Firth Catherine O'Sullivan 💍 1867/6763	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	24 20	Nelson Nelson	12 months 20 years	at Christ church Nelson	822	Declar no person in N.Z. having authority	25 Mch 1867	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone

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).