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 242

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

4 March 1868

Christopher Much
Mary Ann Collero

Christopher Meech
Mary Anne Collins
💍 1868/7355

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Mariner

24 years
21 years

Wellington
Wellington

many years
many years

St Marys Cathedral Thorndon

939

4 March 1868

The Rt Rev. Dr Heard and others

No	34
Date of Notice	4 March 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher Much	Mary Ann Collero
BDM Match (82%)	Christopher Meech	Mary Anne Collins
	💍 1868/7355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	24 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	many years	many years
Marriage Place	St Marys Cathedral Thorndon
Folio	939
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rt Rev. Dr Heard and others

5 March 1868

Thomas Cook
Charlotte [UNCLEAR]

Thomas Cook
Charlotte Judd
💍 1868/7250

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23 years
19 years

Hutt
do

23 years
19 years

Residence of her Mary Jane Judd mother

903

Mary Jane Judd, mother

20 March 1868

The Rev. Mr George [UNCLEAR] and others

No	35
Date of Notice	5 March 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Cook	Charlotte [UNCLEAR]
BDM Match (76%)	Thomas Cook	Charlotte Judd
	💍 1868/7250
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Hutt	do
Length of Residence	23 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Residence of her Mary Jane Judd mother
Folio	903
Consent	Mary Jane Judd, mother
Date of Certificate	20 March 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Mr George [UNCLEAR] and others

6 March 1868

William [UNCLEAR]
Susan Bradley

William Toogood
Susan Bradley
💍 1868/7088

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanical Engineer

29 years
26 years

Wellington
Wellington

about 3 years
nearly 3 years

Residence of Mr John Leyp Willis Street

848

6 March 1868

The Rev. John Hall [UNCLEAR]

No	36
Date of Notice	6 March 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William [UNCLEAR]	Susan Bradley
BDM Match (74%)	William Toogood	Susan Bradley
	💍 1868/7088
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanical Engineer
Age	29 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	about 3 years	nearly 3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr John Leyp Willis Street
Folio	848
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 March 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Hall [UNCLEAR]

7 March 1868

John Walden
Sarah Sell

John Walden
Sarah Seel
💍 1868/7292

Bachelor
Widow

Storekeeper

about 49 years
about 49 years

Wellington
do

10 days
10 days

St Peters Church Willis Street

912

9 March 1868

The Rev. Arthur [UNCLEAR] and others

No	37
Date of Notice	7 March 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Walden	Sarah Sell
BDM Match (95%)	John Walden	Sarah Seel
	💍 1868/7292
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	about 49 years	about 49 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	10 days	10 days
Marriage Place	St Peters Church Willis Street
Folio	912
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Arthur [UNCLEAR] and others

9 March 1868

Henry Lear
Emily Woodland

Henry Lear
Emma Woodland Frith
💍 1868/7220

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23 years
23 years

Hutt
do

23 years
1 year

Wesleyan Schoolroom Manners Street

No	38
Date of Notice	9 March 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Lear	Emily Woodland
BDM Match (76%)	Henry Lear	Emma Woodland Frith
	💍 1868/7220
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Hutt	do
Length of Residence	23 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Schoolroom Manners Street
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

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).