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 238

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

24 January 1868

Henry Durham Maginn
Emma Curtis

Henry Durham Maguire
Emma Curtis
💍 1868/7283

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
null

null
minor

Ingestrie Street, Wellington
Ingestrie Street

4 years
1 year

St Peters Church

914

Ann Jane Curtis, mother

24 January 1868

The Rev. A. Stock

No	14
Date of Notice	24 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Durham Maginn	Emma Curtis
BDM Match (93%)	Henry Durham Maguire	Emma Curtis
	💍 1868/7283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	null
Age	null	minor
Dwelling Place	Ingestrie Street, Wellington	Ingestrie Street
Length of Residence	4 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St Peters Church
Folio	914
Consent	Ann Jane Curtis, mother
Date of Certificate	24 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. A. Stock

25 January 1868

George Leggett
Elizabeth Ann Doust

George Leggett
Elizabeth West Doust
💍 1868/7163

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman
null

29 years
22 years

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
2 years

St Paul's Cathedral

874

8 February 1868

The Rev. P. McFaull and others

No	15
Date of Notice	25 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Leggett	Elizabeth Ann Doust
BDM Match (90%)	George Leggett	Elizabeth West Doust
	💍 1868/7163
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman	null
Age	29 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Cathedral
Folio	874
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. P. McFaull and others

29 January 1868

Samuel Darcy Downes
Sarah Head

Samuel Stacey Downes
Sarah Head
💍 1868/7286

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotel keeper
null

31 years
23 years

Apiary Street, Wellington
Wellington

15 years
many years

St Peters, Willis Street

915

29 January 1868

The Rev. Arthur Stock and others

No	16
Date of Notice	29 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Darcy Downes	Sarah Head
BDM Match (90%)	Samuel Stacey Downes	Sarah Head
	💍 1868/7286
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotel keeper	null
Age	31 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Apiary Street, Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	many years
Marriage Place	St Peters, Willis Street
Folio	915
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Arthur Stock and others

31 January 1868

James Sproale
Eleanor Hollywood

James Sproule
Eleanor Hollywood
💍 1868/7223

Widower
Widow

Farmer
null

48 years
35

Wellington
Wellington

nearly 3 years
about 12 months

Residence of bride, Stirling Street

894

31 January 1868

The Rev. James Muir and others

No	17
Date of Notice	31 January 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Sproale	Eleanor Hollywood
BDM Match (96%)	James Sproule	Eleanor Hollywood
	💍 1868/7223
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Farmer	null
Age	48 years	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	nearly 3 years	about 12 months
Marriage Place	Residence of bride, Stirling Street
Folio	894
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. James Muir and others

1 February 1868

William Henry Quick
Annabella Jackson

William Henry Quick
Anne Elizabeth Thomas
💍 1868/7130

Bachelor
Spinster

Barrister & Solicitor
null

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

10 days
12 months

At the Residence of John Kebbell Esq, Taranaki Place, Wellington

862

1 February 1868

The Rev. William Sull and others

No	18
Date of Notice	1 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Quick	Annabella Jackson
BDM Match (64%)	William Henry Quick	Anne Elizabeth Thomas
	💍 1868/7130
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barrister & Solicitor	null
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 days	12 months
Marriage Place	At the Residence of John Kebbell Esq, Taranaki Place, Wellington
Folio	862
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. William Sull 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).