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 247

District of Quarter ending

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
60	24 April 1868	William Phyn Alice Christie	William Phyn Alice Christie 💍 1868/7253	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 25	Hutt Wellington	nearly 2 years 4 mos	Residence of George Mc Horide, Hutt	9014		24 April 1868	Rev. W. McGowan
61	24 April 1868	Herbest Haffenden Janet Macleon Knox	Herbert Haffenden Fitz-Herbert Janet Maclean Knox 💍 1868/7058	Widower Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Porirua do	2 years 7 years	Church of England Johnsonville	838		24 April 1868	Rev. J. Fancourt-Fors
62	24 April 1868	William Eyre Watts Cecilia Irene Dwyer	William Eyre Watts Cecilia Irene O'Dwyer 💍 1868/7451	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	27 18	Kaurarapa at present Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 months	Roman Catholic Cathedral Thorndon	992	Thomas Dwyer residing within the Colony	24 April 1868	Rt. Rev. Dr. Viard
63	30 April 1868	John Thrighton Griffiths Jane Saunders	John Knighton Griffiths Jane Saunders 💍 1868/7385	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 18	Wellington do	13 mos. 18 years	Residence of Rev. Robert Ward Sydney Street	9119	James Saunders Father	30 April 1868	Rev. Robert Ward
64	1 May 1868	William Franklin Browne Ellen Jenkins	William Franklin Browne Ellen Jenkins 💍 1868/7073	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	24 24	Wellington do	6 years many years	Residence of William Franklin Browne Lampton Quay	843		15 May 1868	Rev. W. M. Bull
65	2 May 1868	Thomas H. Cleland Harriett Webber	Thomas McCleland Harriet Webber 💍 1868/7382	Widower Spinster	Bootmaker	41 22	Wellington do	many years many years	Residence of the Rev. Robert Ward Sydney Street	948		2 May 1868	Rev. Robert Ward
66	12 May 1868	John Shiers Rishworth Emily Sarah Palmer	John Shiers Rishworth Emily Sarah Palmer 💍 1946/174	Bachelor Spinster	Wesleyan Minister	30 19	Greytown at present Wellington Wellington	7 days 5 days	Residence of Mr. Henry Dawson Ingestre Street	865	There is no parent or guardian residing within the Colony	12 May 1868	Rev. J. Kirk

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).