Intentions to Marry, 1869

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840381, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 254

District of Wellington Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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 August 1869

David Allan
Helen Stoddart

David Allan
Helen Stoddart
💍 1869/4070

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
17

Wellington
do

3 years
17 years

Presbyterian Church, Willis Street

547

Christina Stoddart, Mother

15 September 1869

Rev. James Paterson

No	95
Date of Notice	30 August 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Allan	Helen Stoddart
	💍 1869/4070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	3 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Willis Street
Folio	547
Consent	Christina Stoddart, Mother
Date of Certificate	15 September 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paterson

30 August 1869

John Cargill
Eliza Catherine Featherston

John Cargill
Eliza Catharine Featherston
💍 1869/5979

Widower
Spinster

Runholder

48
22

Sunedin at present Wellington
Wellington

3 months
22 years

St. Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon

581

30 August 1869

Rev. H. F. Ewald

No	96
Date of Notice	30 August 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cargill	Eliza Catherine Featherston
BDM Match (98%)	John Cargill	Eliza Catharine Featherston
	💍 1869/5979
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Runholder
Age	48	22
Dwelling Place	Sunedin at present Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon
Folio	581
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. F. Ewald

1 September 1869

George Augustus Bryan
Matilda Rash

Widower
Widow

General dealer

43
38

Wellington
do

12 months
20 years

Wesleyan Chapel, Manners Strut

Certificate not yet issued

No	97
Date of Notice	1 September 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Augustus Bryan	Matilda Rash
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	General dealer
Age	43	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	12 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Chapel, Manners Strut
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Certificate not yet issued

15 September 1869

James Sulvan Moore
Louisa Rebecca Bonds

James Sulvan Moore
Louisa Rebecca Dodds
💍 1869/5856

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

23
22

Wellington
do

4 years
22 years

Residence of Mr. James Bonds, Adelaide Road

539

15 September 1869

Rev. W. Kirg

No	98
Date of Notice	15 September 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Sulvan Moore	Louisa Rebecca Bonds
BDM Match (95%)	James Sulvan Moore	Louisa Rebecca Dodds
	💍 1869/5856
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	4 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. James Bonds, Adelaide Road
Folio	539
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 September 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Kirg

18 September 1869

Horby Phillips Keals
Sarah Adams

Horley Phillips Keals
Sarah Adams
💍 1869/9549

Bachelor
Widow

Settler

36
32

Wellington
do

4 years
2 years

St. Peter Church, Te Aro

18 September 1869

Rev. Arthur Stock

No	99
Date of Notice	18 September 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horby Phillips Keals	Sarah Adams
BDM Match (95%)	Horley Phillips Keals	Sarah Adams
	💍 1869/9549
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Settler
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter Church, Te Aro
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 September 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Arthur Stock

100

18 September 1869

Charles Fish Fox
Mary Ann Morrison

Charles Fish Fox
Mary Ann Morrison
💍 1869/5817

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

23
18

Wellington
do

15 years
18 years

Primitive Methodist Chapel, Sydney Street

Rev. Robert Taylor

No	100
Date of Notice	18 September 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Fish Fox	Mary Ann Morrison
	💍 1869/5817
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	do
Length of Residence	15 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Sydney Street
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. Robert Taylor

101

22 September 1869

Andrew Orr
Marion Mitchell

Andrew Orr
Marion Mitchell
💍 1869/5970

Bachelor
Spinster

Shoemaker

24
35

Porirua
Porirua

1 month
many years

Private residence of Mr. James Mitchell, Porirua Road

Certificate not yet issued

No	101
Date of Notice	22 September 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Orr	Marion Mitchell
	💍 1869/5970
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shoemaker
Age	24	35
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Porirua
Length of Residence	1 month	many years
Marriage Place	Private residence of Mr. James Mitchell, Porirua Road
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Certificate not yet issued

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).