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 326

District of Nelson Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
38	26 April	Edward Hault Ann Jane Hagan	Edward Hoult Ann Jane Hagan 💍 1867/6859	Bachelor Spinster	Engine driver	25 21	Wakefield Spring Grove	4 years 21 years	R.C. Church	654		10 May 1867	Rev. Jacques Marie Tressallet
39	26 April	William McConchie Ellen Ann Sheer	William McConchie Esther Ann Steer 💍 1867/6604	Bachelor Spinster	Boot maker	30 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 12 years	At the residence of William Sheer	761	William Sheer, Father	29 April	Rev. Patrick Calder
40	30 April	Arthur Frederick Needham Amelia Kinnett	Arthur Frederick Needham Amelia Kinzett 💍 1867/6862	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Hope Waimea East Hope Waimea East	8 months 14 years	At the residence of Geo Kinnett farmer	655	George Kinnett, Father	30 April	Rev. Rob. Leslie Bickers
41	30 April	Henry William Turner Hannah Harvey	Henry William Turner Hannah Harvey 💍 1867/6838	Bachelor Spinster	Cabman	21 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	21 years 12 years	at Union Chapel Hardy's Nelson	647		30 April	Rev. Edward Thomas
42	3 May	Samuel Arthur Young Jane Farr	Samuel Arthur Young Jane Farr 💍 1867/6727	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 years 10 years	at the Catholic Church Nelson	810		17 May	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
43	13 May	John Rochfort Amelia Susan Lewis	John Rochfort Amelia Susan Lewis 💍 1867/6778	Widower Spinster	Surveyor	36 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 12 years	at Christ Church Nelson	829		13 May	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone
44	14 May	Daniel Fraser Hannah Prichard	Daniel Fraser Hannah Prichard 💍 1867/6607	Bachelor Spinster	Sea man	36 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	13 years 2 years	At the residence of Joseph Carlett Hope St carpenter Nelson	768		14 May	Rev. Patrick Calder
45	18 May	Richard Funnell Charlotte Alcott	Richard Funnell Charlotte Alcock 💍 1867/4246	Widower Widow	Farmer	56 52	City of Nelson Hope Waimea East	1 week 15 years	at the residence of Charlotte Alcott widow Hope	788		18 May	Rev. John Crump
46	25 May	John Thomas Hurden Eliza Webby	John Thomas Snowden Eliza Webby 💍 1867/6697	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 17	Waimea East Waimea East	20 years 17 years	at the Baptist Chapel Bridge St Nelson	800	Edward Webby, Father	25 May	Rev. John Davis
47	28 May	David Burns Harriet Howell	David Burns Harriet Howell 💍 1867/6610	Widower Spinster	Builder	53 37	City of Nelson City of Nelson	16 years 2 months	at the residence of David Burns Builder Waimea Street	769		28 May	Rev. Patrick Calder
48	29 May	William Grant Ellen Dement	William Grant Ellen Dement 💍 1867/6667	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 week 18 years	at the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy St Nelson	767		29 May	Rev. John Crump
49	31 May	George White Emma King	George White Ellen King 💍 1867/6781	Bachelor Widow	Publican	33 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	18 months 3 days	at Christ Church Nelson	828		31 May	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone
50	5 June	John Campbell Isabella Black	John Campbell Isabella Black 💍 1867/6613	Bachelor Spinster	Presbyterian minister	31 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 day 16 years	at the residence of James Palmer Black Kawai St. Nelson	870		5 June	Rev. Patrick Calder

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).