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 555

District of Port Chalmers Quarter ending Jan - Mar Registrar John Joyce

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

2 January 1867

Robert Bauchop
Maria Stewart

Robert Bauchop
Maria Stewart
💍 1867/9712

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

36
24

Currie Street Port Chalmers
Currie Street Port Chalmers

5 years
3 days

At the house of Robert Bauchop situate in Currie Street

67/1834

2 January 1867

Rev. TS. Forsaith

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Bauchop	Maria Stewart
	💍 1867/9712
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	36	24
Dwelling Place	Currie Street Port Chalmers	Currie Street Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	5 years	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of Robert Bauchop situate in Currie Street
Folio	67/1834
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1867
Officiating Minister	Rev. TS. Forsaith

3 January 1867

George Clark
Christina Hempseed

George Clarke
Christina Hempsen
💍 1867/9754

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

20
21

Constitution Street Port Chalmers
Sawyers Bay

3 years
7 years

At the house of Isaac Clark situate in Constitution Street

67/1848

Isaac Clark, father

3 January 1867

Rev. George B. Quilty

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Clark	Christina Hempseed
BDM Match (91%)	George Clarke	Christina Hempsen
	💍 1867/9754
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Constitution Street Port Chalmers	Sawyers Bay
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Isaac Clark situate in Constitution Street
Folio	67/1848
Consent	Isaac Clark, father
Date of Certificate	3 January 1867
Officiating Minister	Rev. George B. Quilty

7 January 1867

Thomas Anderson
Christina Adamson Kilgour

Thomas Anderson
Christina Aadamson Kilgour
💍 1867/9715

Bachelor
Spinster

Agriculturist

22
19

Pleasant Point, Port Chalmers
Pleasant Point, Port Chalmers

4 days
5 years

At the house of David Kilgour situate at Pleasant Point

67/1835

David Kilgour, father

7 January 1867

Rev. T S. Forsaith

No	3
Date of Notice	7 January 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Anderson	Christina Adamson Kilgour
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Anderson	Christina Aadamson Kilgour
	💍 1867/9715
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agriculturist
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Pleasant Point, Port Chalmers	Pleasant Point, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	4 days	5 years
Marriage Place	At the house of David Kilgour situate at Pleasant Point
Folio	67/1835
Consent	David Kilgour, father
Date of Certificate	7 January 1867
Officiating Minister	Rev. T S. Forsaith

19 January 1867

Thomas Nelson
Christina Ross

Thomas Nelson
Christina Ross
💍 1867/9718

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

30
21

Royal Hotel, Port Chalmers
Royal Hotel, Port Chalmers

4 days
4 days

At the Registrars' Office

67/1836

19 January 1867

The Registrar

No	4
Date of Notice	19 January 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Nelson	Christina Ross
	💍 1867/9718
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Royal Hotel, Port Chalmers	Royal Hotel, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	At the Registrars' Office
Folio	67/1836
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1867
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

22 February 1867

John Tunnage
Jane Stewart

John Tunnage
Jane Stewart
💍 1867/9724

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

26
17

Hamilton Bay, Port Chalmers
Portobello

3 years
5 years

At the house of William Rochford, Portobells

67/1838

Barbara Rochford, mother

22 February 1867

Rev. W. Johnston

No	5
Date of Notice	22 February 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Tunnage	Jane Stewart
	💍 1867/9724
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	26	17
Dwelling Place	Hamilton Bay, Port Chalmers	Portobello
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	At the house of William Rochford, Portobells
Folio	67/1838
Consent	Barbara Rochford, mother
Date of Certificate	22 February 1867
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Johnston

12 March 1867

Samuel Harman
Sarah Towler

Samuel Harman
Sarah Towler
💍 1867/9727

Bachelor
Spinster

Licensed Victualler

37
28

Blanket Bay, Port Chalmers
Blanket Bay, Port Chalmers

3 days
3 days

At the house of Joseph Sandlant situate in Blanket Bay

67/1839

12 March 1867

Rev. T S. Forsaith

No	6
Date of Notice	12 March 1867
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Harman	Sarah Towler
	💍 1867/9727
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Licensed Victualler
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Blanket Bay, Port Chalmers	Blanket Bay, Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of Joseph Sandlant situate in Blanket Bay
Folio	67/1839
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1867
Officiating Minister	Rev. T S. Forsaith

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 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).