Intentions to Marry, 1868

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840380, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 217

District of Quarter ending

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
1	2 January 1868	William [UNCLEAR] Ellen Leslie		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	over over	Wanganui do	18 ms 8 dys	at the Residence	996		2 January 1868	Rev. J. Elmslie
2	2 January 1868	John Hyger Jane Flyger	John Flyger Amey Flyger 💍 1868/7664	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	over over	Turakina Wanganui	18 ms 4 dys	Pres. Resi.	1046		2 January 1868	Rev. J. Higgs
3	4 January 1868	Philip M. Beard Sarah J. Quin		Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	24 16	Wanganui do	9 yrs 6	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	995	John Quin, Father	4 January 1868	Rev. J. Allcocks
4	4 January 1868	John Bonnie Barbara Murray	John Bennie Barbara Murray 💍 1868/7460	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	over 21	Wanganui do	3 yrs 6 ms	Scotch Church Turakina	995		4 January 1868	Rev. A. Begg
5	4 January 1868	Michael Convoy Catherine Mohan	Michael Cormory Catherine McDonald 💍 1868/5420 Michael Pollock Catherine Solomon 💍 1868/9721	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 21	Wanganui do	10 yrs 7 yrs	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	996		4 January 1868	Rev. A. Refuck
6	25 January 1868	Humphrey Richards Elizabeth Usher	Charles Montrose Richards Elizabeth Baker 💍 1868/7559	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Rangihin do	12 ms 2 ms	Pres. d. Res.	1010		25 January 1868	Rev. B. Parkes
7	27 January 1868	James Rice Eliza Maynard Nevile		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	34 30	Wanganui do	2 yrs 3	at the Residence	997		27 January 1868	Rev. J. Elmslie
8	11 February 1868	Samuel Rice Jane Williamson	Samuel Rici Ann Maria Williamson 💍 1868/7469	Bachelor Spinster		over over	Wanganui do	6 ms 15 ms	Pres. Res.	998		11 February 1868	Rev. J. Elmslie
9	22 February 1868	Daniel Hughes Mary Ann Ward	Daniel Hughes Margaret Ward 💍 1868/7556 William Cather Mary Ann Ward 💍 1868/5309	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 17	Wanganui Patea	14 dys 12	at the Residence	1009	Patrick Ward, Father	22 February 1868	Rev. J. Elmslie
10	21 February 1868	A. Gutbrie Phillips Eliza Clinton	Charles Guthrie Phillips Elena Churton 💍 1868/7505	Bachelor Spinster		over over	Wanganui do	4 dys 4 yrs	at Christ Church	999		21 February 1868	Rev. Cha. Nicholls
11	24 February 1868	George Brown Mary Agnes Nisbetter	George Brown Mary Agnes Mitchell 💍 1868/7526	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	27 21	Wanganui do	11 ms 18	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	998		24 February 1868	Rev. A. Refuck
12	February 1868	Charles Schnasel Jessie Mitchell		Bachelor Spinster	Barman	27 23	Wanganui do	4 yrs 12 ms	at Wesleyan Chapel	999		February 1868	Rev. A. Refuck

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).