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 237

District of Quarter ending

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

17 January 1868

Isaac Maxwell Morrison
Sarah Lane

Isaac Maxwell Morrison
Sarah Lane
💍 1868/7085

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

28
19

Wellington
do

4 years
about 12 years

Residence of David [UNCLEAR] Morrison Karori Road

817

Sarah Lane, mother

17 January 1868

The Rev. John Hall and others

No	9
Date of Notice	17 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Isaac Maxwell Morrison	Sarah Lane
	💍 1868/7085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	4 years	about 12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of David [UNCLEAR] Morrison Karori Road
Folio	817
Consent	Sarah Lane, mother
Date of Certificate	17 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Hall and others

18 January 1868

William Peter Allowgham
Jane Jackson

William Peter Fellingham
Jane Jackson
💍 1868/7061

Bachelor
Spinster

Shoemaker

21
18

Wellington
Wellington

many years
18 years

Residence of the Rev. W.M. Hall, Hill Street

369

Helen Jackson, mother

18 January 1868

The Rev. W.M. [UNCLEAR], and others

No	10
Date of Notice	18 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Peter Allowgham	Jane Jackson
BDM Match (92%)	William Peter Fellingham	Jane Jackson
	💍 1868/7061
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shoemaker
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	many years	18 years
Marriage Place	Residence of the Rev. W.M. Hall, Hill Street
Folio	369
Consent	Helen Jackson, mother
Date of Certificate	18 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. W.M. [UNCLEAR], and others

18 January 1868

John Wrighton Griffin
Ida Saunders

John Knighton Griffiths
Jane Saunders
💍 1868/7385

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

25
18

Wellington
do

10 months
18 years

No 5 Lockyer Buildings, Mulgrave Street

949

Certificate not yet issued

No	11
Date of Notice	18 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wrighton Griffin	Ida Saunders
BDM Match (74%)	John Knighton Griffiths	Jane Saunders
	💍 1868/7385
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	10 months	18 years
Marriage Place	No 5 Lockyer Buildings, Mulgrave Street
Folio	949
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Certificate not yet issued

20 January 1868

James Nelson Williams
Mary Margaret Beetham

James Nelson Williams
Mary Margaret Beetham
💍 1868/7103

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

30
22

Napier- at present Hutt
Hutt

4 days
many years

Church of England, Lower Hutt

853

20 January 1868

The Rev. J.E. Herring and others

No	12
Date of Notice	20 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Nelson Williams	Mary Margaret Beetham
	💍 1868/7103
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Napier- at present Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	4 days	many years
Marriage Place	Church of England, Lower Hutt
Folio	853
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J.E. Herring and others

20 January 1868

John Herbert Stat
Sarah Ann Theresa Crowder

John Herbert Street
Sarah Ann Theresa Crowder
💍 1868/7340

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
18

Wellington
Wellington

18 mos
many years

St. Mary's Cathedral, Thorndon

972

John Crowder, father

20 January 1868

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Viard, and others

No	13
Date of Notice	20 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Herbert Stat	Sarah Ann Theresa Crowder
BDM Match (92%)	John Herbert Street	Sarah Ann Theresa Crowder
	💍 1868/7340
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 mos	many years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Cathedral, Thorndon
Folio	972
Consent	John Crowder, father
Date of Certificate	20 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rt. Rev. Dr. Viard, and others

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).