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 219

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
18	9 April 1868	Alexander Treggis Anne Scott	Alexander Higgie Annie Scott 💍 1868/7562 Alexander Fraser Agnes Scott 💍 1868/6059	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	23 17	Whangarei Kamotoko	3 yrs 14 yrs	at the Residence of Mr Scott	1011	Thos Scott, Father	17 April 1868	Book J Duncan
19	11 April 1868	Fred Whittack Julia Ann Pannell		Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	21 18	Whangarei Whangarei	2 yrs 1/2 yr	at Christ Church	993	John Pannell, Father	17 April 1868	Revd C. Nicholson
20	16 April 1868	Simon Richards Mary Ann Bell	Simon Richards Mary Ann Bell 💍 1868/7514	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	27 19	Whangarei ditto	3 yrs 4 mos	at Christ Church	994	Charles Bell, Father	17 April 1868	Revd C Nicholson
21	25 April 1868	Alfred Gibbs Mary Root	Alfred Feist Mary Roots 💍 1868/7565	Widower Spinster	Shopkeeper	33 27	Whangarei ditto	1 week 6 mos	at the Wesleyan Chapel	1012		25 April 1868	Revd R Taylor
22	4 May 1868	James Dredgen Sarah Ann Saunders		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 22	Whangarei do	4 mos 11 yrs	at the Wesleyan Chapel	1013		4 May 1868	Revd Mr Morley
23	13 May 1868	John Robertson Mary and Power	John Robinson Margaret Power 💍 1868/7529	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 19	Whangarei do	20 yrs 2 yrs	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	999	Charles McLean, Father, Charles Hanna, Guardian	13 May 1868	Thos S. Request
24	18 May 1868	Wm McKay Ellen McGill		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 23	Whangarei do	8 yrs 3 yrs	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	1000		19 May 1868	Thos S. Request
25	26 May 1868	James Wallace Helen Henderson		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Whangarei do	20 yrs 18 yrs	at the Roman Catholic Chapel	1048	William Wallace, Father	26 May 1868	Revd D Hay
26	3 June 1868	Henry Muir Catherine Carnak	Henry Mooser Catherine Carmont 💍 1868/7535	Bachelor Spinster	Shipkeeper	27 22	Whangarei do	2 yrs 2 yrs	Wesleyan Chapel	1001		3 June 1868	Rev J Armistea
27	6 June 1868	Ambrose Cock Catherine McConville	Ambrose Lock Catherine McConvill 💍 1868/7538	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	26 25	Whangarei do	4 yrs 6 mos	Roman Catholic Chapel	1002		6 June 1868	Rev J Armistea
28	16 June 1868	Patrick Mohan Mary Flemming	Patrick Mahony Mary Fleming 💍 1868/7541 Patrick Morrisy Mary Dempsy 💍 1869/4001	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	36 24	Whangarei do	7 yrs 7 yrs	Roman Catholic Chapel	1003		16 June 1868	Revd A. Reynall
29	26 June 1868	Daniel Skelton Jane Horn	Daniel Thurston Jane Horne 💍 1868/7571	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 18	Whangarei do	21 yrs 9 mos	at Mr Houghton's Whangarei	1014	Jno E Horn, Father	27 June 1868	Revd C. Tennant

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).