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 449

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 30 Sep 1868 Registrar Charles Dudley

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

13 July 1868

Hiram Orchard
Margaret Thompson

Hiram Orchard
Margaret Thompson
💍 1868/6710

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
20

Woodend
Woodend

8 years
9 years

The house of William Orchard, Woodend

718

John Thompson, Father

13 July 1868

Rev. W Kirton

No	1
Date of Notice	13 July 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hiram Orchard	Margaret Thompson
	💍 1868/6710
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Woodend	Woodend
Length of Residence	8 years	9 years
Marriage Place	The house of William Orchard, Woodend
Folio	718
Consent	John Thompson, Father
Date of Certificate	13 July 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. W Kirton

27 July 1868

Robert Cooper Rose
Nellie Allies Hewlings

Robert Cooper Rose
Ellen Allise Hewlings
💍 1868/6950

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk at Bank

21
18

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

4
10s

At the house of George Hewlings

800

George F. Hewlings, Father

27 July 1868

Rev W W Willock

No	2
Date of Notice	27 July 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Cooper Rose	Nellie Allies Hewlings
BDM Match (86%)	Robert Cooper Rose	Ellen Allise Hewlings
	💍 1868/6950
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk at Bank
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	4	10s
Marriage Place	At the house of George Hewlings
Folio	800
Consent	George F. Hewlings, Father
Date of Certificate	27 July 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev W W Willock

11 August 1868

William Gilkins
Emma Sarah Rickman

William Gilkison
Emma Sarah Rickman
💍 1868/6953

Bachelor
Widow

Bank Agent

36
37

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

6 years
7 years

At the Parish Church at Kaiapoi

801

11 August 1868

Rev. W. W. Willock

No	3
Date of Notice	11 August 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Gilkins	Emma Sarah Rickman
BDM Match (91%)	William Gilkison	Emma Sarah Rickman
	💍 1868/6953
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Bank Agent
Age	36	37
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	6 years	7 years
Marriage Place	At the Parish Church at Kaiapoi
Folio	801
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 August 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. W. Willock

18 August 1868

James Robertson
Martha Midgley

James Robertson
Martha Midgley
💍 1868/6734

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer

24
22

Kaiapoi
Kaiapoi

9 months
3 years

At the house of Mr Wake, Kaiapoi

726

18 August 1868

Revd J B Richardson

No	4
Date of Notice	18 August 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Robertson	Martha Midgley
	💍 1868/6734
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Kaiapoi	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	9 months	3 years
Marriage Place	At the house of Mr Wake, Kaiapoi
Folio	726
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 August 1868
Officiating Minister	Revd J B Richardson

18 September 1868

James Whyte
Sarah Edwards

James Whyte
Sarah Edwards
💍 1868/6713

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

30
21

Eyreton
Rangiora Swamp

1 mon
11 mon

At the Scotch Manse at Kaiapoi

779

8 September 1868

Rev. W. Kirton

No	5
Date of Notice	18 September 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Whyte	Sarah Edwards
	💍 1868/6713
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	30	21
Dwelling Place	Eyreton	Rangiora Swamp
Length of Residence	1 mon	11 mon
Marriage Place	At the Scotch Manse at Kaiapoi
Folio	779
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 September 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Kirton

18 September 1868

Horatio James Wood
Agnes Margaret Dudley

Horatio James Wood
Agnes Margaret Dudley
💍 1868/6956

Bachelor
Spinster

Stock Owner

25
21

Eyreton
Kaiapoi

4 years
10 years

At the Parish Church at Kaiapoi

802

18 September 1868

Rev. W. W. Willock

No	6
Date of Notice	18 September 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horatio James Wood	Agnes Margaret Dudley
	💍 1868/6956
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stock Owner
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Eyreton	Kaiapoi
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	At the Parish Church at Kaiapoi
Folio	802
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 September 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. W. Willock

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).