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 329

District of Nelson 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
58	6 July 1867	John Nelson Margaret Dellow	John Nelson Margaret Dellow 💍 1867/6625	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 14 years	at Christchurch			6 July 1867	Rev. Geo. F. Johnstone
59	15 July 1867	Phillip Copeman Wilson Fanny Jones	Phillip Copeman Wilson Fanny Jones 💍 1867/6841	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneers clerk	29 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 10 years	at the residence of William Richardson Jones	994	John Dellow, Father	15 July 1867	Rev. Chas. Thomas
60	15 July 1867	John Nelson Margaret Dellow	John Nelson Margaret Dellow 💍 1867/6625	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 14 years	at the Presby. Church in Nelson	774	John Dellow, Father	15 July 1867	Rev. Patrick Calder
61	16 July 1867	William James Kingett Sophia Busch	William James Kinzett Sophia Busch 💍 1867/6877	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Hope Waimea East Waimea East	5 years 21 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages	860		16 July 1867	Registrar of marriages
62	17 July 1867	Joseph Rigby Susannah Ganzard	Joseph Rigby Susannah Gazzard 💍 1867/4621	Widower Widow	Farmer	40 40	Tadmor Fox Hill	6 months 6 years	at the residence of Susannah Ganzard			17 July 1867	Rev. Francis Tripp
63	19 July 1867	Thomas Gibbs Clara Ruff	Thomas Gibbs Clara Ruff 💍 1867/6673	Widower Spinster	Mariner	36 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 8 years	at the residence of Richard Thomas JB.com	774	Elizabeth Flower, mother	19 July 1867	Rev. John Crump
64	20 July 1867	George Best Jane Allport	George Best Jane Allport 💍 1867/6880	Bachelor Spinster	Farm labourer	23 27	Suburban South Suburban South	22 years 25 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages	861		22 July 1867	Registrar of marriages
65	23 July 1867	Charles Montague Ellis Grace Emily Higgin	Charles Montague Ellis Grace Emily Higgin 💍 1867/6856	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	City of Nelson Waimea West	3 days 2 years	at St. Michaels church	853	Winfield Higgin, Father	23 July 1867	Rev. Arthur Towgood
66	27 July 1867	Christian Hanson Emma Eban	Christian Hanson Emma Eban 💍 1867/6676	Bachelor Widow	Shoe maker	39 41	Waimea West Waimea West	12 years 4 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy Street	792		27 July 1867	Rev. Rob. L. Mecheso
67	29 July 1867	Thomas Reeves Sarah Ann Wilson	Thomas Reeves Sarah Ann Wilson 💍 1867/6679	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	8 years 15 months	at the Wesleyan Chapel Hardy Street	793	Declaration no person in NZ having authority	29 July 1867	Rev. John Crump
68	30 July 1867	James Gilbert Draper Ann Middlemiss	James Gilbert Drane Ann Middlemiss 💍 1867/6682	Bachelor Spinster	Ships providore	32 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	18 months 9 years	at residence of Peter Middlemiss	794		1 Aug 1867	Rev. John Crump
69	6 Aug 1867	Thomas Verran Elizabeth Gordon	Thomas Venan Elizabeth Gordon 💍 1867/6631	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	27 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 2 years	at the residence of Thomas Gunderson	796		6 Aug 1867	Rev. Patrick Calder
70	6 Aug 1867	Thomas Holmes Margaret Cooney	Thomas Holmes Margaret Cooney 💍 1867/6628	Bachelor Spinster	Master mariner	29 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 3 years	at the residence of Thomas Holmes	795		6 Aug 1867	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).