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 350

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
42	2 May 1868	John Williams Wigzell Elizabeth Taylor	John Williams Wigzell Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1868/8099	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitors clerk	26 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	25 years 20 years	At Christ church Nelson	1204	Sarah Taylor, mother	2 May 1868	Rev. Geo. H. Johns
43	4 May 1868	Robert Blundell King Anna Maria Burk	Robert Blundell King Anna Maria Burt 💍 1868/7973	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 months	At the Wesleyan Chapel	1160		4 May 1868	Rev. John Crump
44	4 May 1868	Henry James Bradley Elizabeth Askew	Henry James Bradley Elizabeth Astle 💍 1868/7970	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 22	Suburban South City of Nelson	16 years 22 years	At the residence of Arthur John Bradley Suburban South	1159		4 May 1868	Rev. John Crump
45	5 May 1868	James M^c Coukey Louisa Please	James McCoulsey Louisa Haase 💍 1868/8165	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	45 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 years 8 years	At the residence of James m^c Coukey with Sill West nelson	1227		5 May 1868	Rev. Edward H
46	6 May 1868	Henry Jellyman Elizabeth Wells	Henry Jellyman Elizabeth Wells 💍 1868/7976	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	19 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 18 months	At the Wesleyan Chapel Suburban South	1161	Enoch Jellyman, Father Samuel Wells, Father	6 May 1868	Rev. John Crump
47	11 May 1868	John Palmer Phoebe Morton	John Palmer Phoebe Morton 💍 1868/8102	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper	33 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At Christ church Nelson	1205		11 May 1868	Rev. Geo: H: Johns
48	11 May 1868	Ralph Rutherford Mary White	Ralph Rutherford Mary White 💍 1868/8051	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At the Catholic Church Nelson	1184	Declaration under clause VII	11 May 1868	Rev. Antoine Macdon
49	16 May 1868	Frederick Stratford Louisa Small	Frederick Stratford Louisa Small 💍 1868/8210	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 17	Aniseed Valley Spring Grove	7 years 10 years	At the protestant Episcopalian church Spring Grove	1245	William Stratford, Father James Small, Father	16 May 1868	Rev. Chas Oliver
50	16 May 1868	John Arnold Johana Reardon	John Arnold Johanna Reardon 💍 1868/8054	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 1 month	At the Catholic Church Nelson	1188		16 May 1868	Rev. Antoine Macdon
51	16 May 1868	John Rutherford Lily Newth	John Rutherford Lily Newth 💍 1868/8201	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	27 21	Waimea East Waimea South	2 years 3 years	At the residence of Robert Scoth Waimea South	1242		16 May 1868	Rev. Robt. Leslie
52	16 May 1868	Charles Evans Mary Ann Cross	Charles Evans Mary Ann Cross 💍 1868/7979	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 20	Nelson City Nelson City	3 years 20 years	Wesleyan chapel Nelson	1162	James Smith Cross, Father	16 May 1868	Rev. John Crump
53	18 May 1868	William Nice Anne Jordan	William Nice Anne Jordan 💍 1868/4374	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	45 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 7 years	At the residence of Thomas Dearsley washing, Jewell St. Brook St. Nelson	1178		18 May 1868	Rev. John Davis
54	21 May 1868	John Gay Louisa Binning	John Gay Louisa Binning 💍 1868/8105	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	25 years 2 years	At Christ Church Nelson	1206		21 May 1868	Rev. Geo: H: Jo

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).