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 251

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1868 Registrar John Elisha Smith

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

30 June 1868

George Dew
Ellen Matilda Harris

George Dew
Ellen Matilda Harris
💍 1868/7259

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
20

Taita
Taita

many years
many years

Residence of Mr Abraham Harris, Taita

68/906

Abraham Harris, father

2 July 1868

The Rev. W. McGowan and others

No	79
Date of Notice	30 June 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Dew	Ellen Matilda Harris
	💍 1868/7259
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Taita	Taita
Length of Residence	many years	many years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Abraham Harris, Taita
Folio	68/906
Consent	Abraham Harris, father
Date of Certificate	2 July 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. W. McGowan and others

30 June 1868

William Fulcher
Caroline Hutchinson

William Fulcher
Caroline Hutchinson
💍 1868/7256

This appeared in last Quarter's Return

No	80
Date of Notice	30 June 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Fulcher	Caroline Hutchinson
	💍 1868/7256
Condition
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	This appeared in last Quarter's Return

8 July 1868

Mattio Turcich
Bridget Byrne

Mattio Turcich
Bridget Byrne
💍 1868/7277

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28 years and 9 months
28

Taita
Lower Hutt

3 years
3 mos

Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt

68/912

8 July 1868

The Rev. Eugene Pertius and others

No	81
Date of Notice	8 July 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mattio Turcich	Bridget Byrne
	💍 1868/7277
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28 years and 9 months	28
Dwelling Place	Taita	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	3 years	3 mos
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	68/912
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Eugene Pertius and others

8 July 1868

David Kerr Young
Catherine Moolick

David Kerr Young
Catherine Moolick
💍 1868/7457

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

21 days
21 days

Roman Catholic Cathedral, Thorndon

68/974

25 July 1868

The Rev. J. B. Petit Jean and others

No	82
Date of Notice	8 July 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Kerr Young	Catherine Moolick
	💍 1868/7457
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 days	21 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Thorndon
Folio	68/974
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 July 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. J. B. Petit Jean and others

10 July 1868

James Saunders Gibbons
Elizabeth Reid

James Saunders Gibbons
Elizabeth Reid
💍 1868/7094

Bachelor
Spinster

Timber Merchant

32
31

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
3 days

Residence of Rev. John Hall, Vivian Street

68/850

10 July 1868

The Rev. John Hall and others

No	83
Date of Notice	10 July 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Saunders Gibbons	Elizabeth Reid
	💍 1868/7094
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Timber Merchant
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. John Hall, Vivian Street
Folio	68/850
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. John Hall and others

14 July 1868

Henry Russell
Emma Blatchford

Henry Russell
Emma Blatchford
💍 1868/4450

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
23

Hutt
Hutt

23 years
4 years

Residence of John Blatchford, Lower Hutt

68/966

14 July 1868

The Rev. Chas. Wm. Rigg. and others

No	84
Date of Notice	14 July 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Russell	Emma Blatchford
	💍 1868/4450
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Hutt	Hutt
Length of Residence	23 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Blatchford, Lower Hutt
Folio	68/966
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1868
Officiating Minister	The Rev. Chas. Wm. Rigg. 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 1908. 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).