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 241

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 February 1868

James Gilchrist
Matilda Churchill

James Gilchrist
Matilda Churchill
💍 1868/7229

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

about 29 years
about 17 years

Wellington
do

about 2 years
1 year

Residence of William Churchill, Cuba Street

896

24 February 1868

The Rev. I.S. Elkin and others

No	29
Date of Notice	24 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Gilchrist	Matilda Churchill
	💍 1868/7229
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	about 29 years	about 17 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	about 2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Residence of William Churchill, Cuba Street
Folio	896
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. I.S. Elkin and others

25 February 1868

James O'Shea
Mary Eliza Jumecork Vallance

James O'Shea
Mary Eliza Danscourt Vallance
💍 1868/7349

Bachelor
Spinster

Commission Agent

39 years
33 years

Wellington
Wellington

2 year
3 weeks

Roman Catholic Cathedral Thorndon

937

25 February 1868

The Rev. Dr Viard, R.C. Bishop and others

No	30
Date of Notice	25 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James O'Shea	Mary Eliza Jumecork Vallance
BDM Match (90%)	James O'Shea	Mary Eliza Danscourt Vallance
	💍 1868/7349
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commission Agent
Age	39 years	33 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 year	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral Thorndon
Folio	937
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Dr Viard, R.C. Bishop and others

26 February 1868

George Morgan
Mary Thompson

George Morgan
Mary Thomson
💍 1868/7373

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

about 21 1/2 years
19/20 years

Porirua Road
Wellington

many years
3 or 4 years

Residence of Mr. Robert Ward Sydney Street

945

Eliza Ford, Mother

26 February 1868

The Rev. Robert Ward and others

No	31
Date of Notice	26 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Morgan	Mary Thompson
BDM Match (96%)	George Morgan	Mary Thomson
	💍 1868/7373
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	about 21 1/2 years	19/20 years
Dwelling Place	Porirua Road	Wellington
Length of Residence	many years	3 or 4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Robert Ward Sydney Street
Folio	945
Consent	Eliza Ford, Mother
Date of Certificate	26 February 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Robert Ward and others

28 February 1868

Henry McLoch Mcdowell
Matilda Santo

Henry Meech
Matilda Sancto
💍 1868/7067

Widower
Widow

Ship builder

50 years
40 years

Wellington
do

38 years
14 years

Residence of Mr. Francis Buck Tory Street

841

28 February 1868

The Rev. I.S. Munn and others

No	32
Date of Notice	28 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry McLoch Mcdowell	Matilda Santo
BDM Match (68%)	Henry Meech	Matilda Sancto
	💍 1868/7067
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Ship builder
Age	50 years	40 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	38 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Francis Buck Tory Street
Folio	841
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. I.S. Munn and others

29 February 1868

James Russell
Mary Ann Remington

James Russell
Mary Ann Rennington
💍 1868/7232

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

27 years
35 years

Wellington
do

nearly 2 years
many years

Residence of John Remington Molesworth Street

899

19 March 1868

The Rev. I.S. Munn and others

No	33
Date of Notice	29 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Russell	Mary Ann Remington
BDM Match (95%)	James Russell	Mary Ann Rennington
	💍 1868/7232
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	27 years	35 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	nearly 2 years	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Remington Molesworth Street
Folio	899
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. I.S. Munn 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).