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 221

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September

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
30	1 July 1868	Joseph Towley Harriet Lille	Joseph Townley Harriet Little 💍 1868/7472	Bachelor Spinster	Carpender	24 21	Waipawa Waipawa	9 mo 2 yrs	at the residence of J. Townley Wanganui	979		1 July 1868	John Elmslie
31	1 July 1868	John Miles Elizabeth Conville	John Miles Elizabeth McConville 💍 1868/7544	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 19	Waipawa	15	at the Roman Catholic Chapel Waipawa	1004		July 8	P.
32	13 July 1868	James Hamilton Ellen Maxwell	James Hamilton Ellen Maxwell 💍 1868/7673	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	over over	Waipawa	4 yrs 10	at the Residence of the Bridegroom	1050		July 13	James Simson
33	17 July 1868	Alexander Bull Jane Collie	Alexander Bell Jane Collins 💍 1868/7475	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Waipawa	4 3 mo	at the Residence of the Bridegroom	980		July 17	James Simson
34	25 July 1868	Thomas Wilson Ellen Howard	Thomas Wilson Ellen Howard 💍 1868/10538	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	24 18	Waipawa do	1/2 18	at the Residence of the Bridegroom	1005	Martin Howard, Father	July 25	Robe
35	10 Aug 1868	D. Chamberlain Eliza J Grey	Robt John Chamberlain Eliza Jane Grey 💍 1868/7478	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 25	Waipawa do	7 yrs 2	at the Residence of the Bridegroom	981		Aug 10	James Simson
36	14 Aug 1868	William A McIlay Elizabeth McLaren	Wm Angus McKay Elizabeth McLaren 💍 1868/7481	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	38 32	Waipawa do	4 4	at the Residence of the Bridegroom	982	Elizabeth McIlay, mother	Aug 14	James Simson
37	1 Sep 1868	Charles Edwards Janet Gillis	Charles Edward Jannet Gillies 💍 1868/7484	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 19	Waipawa do	4 1	at the Residence of the Bridegroom	983		Sep 10	James Simson
38	24 Sep 1868	John C Nicholson Margaret Farly	John C Nicholson Margaret Farely 💍 1868/7547	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	25 21	Waipawa do	5 mo 9 yrs	at the Roman Catholic Chapel Waipawa	1006		Sep 24	Rev. Mr. Campbell

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).