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 259

District of Wellington Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
151	11 October 1869	Daniel Knight Jane Barber	David Knight Jane Barber 💍 1869/6075	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 23	Hutt Hutt	23 years 7 years	Church of England, Hutt	613		11 October 1869	Rev. J.E. Herring & others
152	13 October 1869	Robert Yeatts Jane Gill	Robert Geatts Jane Gill 💍 1869/5985	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	27 20	Karori Wellington	22 months many years	St. Paul's Cathedral, Thorndon	583	Amelia Gill, Mother	18 October 1869	Rev. W.H. Ewald M.A. & others
153	13 October 1869	Alexander Walker Annie Bonshorne	Alexander Walker Annie Bonthorne 💍 1869/5862 Alexander Walker Phillis Broadmore 💍 1869/5568	Bachelor Spinster	Overseer of Cattle Station	25 20	Evans Bay Wellington	3 years 4 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Manners Street	539	Margaret Bonshorne, Mother	17 November 1869	Rev. William Kirk & others
154	14 October 1869	Isaac Saward Ruth Bassett	Isaac Saward Ruth Bassett 💍 1869/5943	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 18	Petoni Horokiwi Road, Hutt	2 years 4 months	Residence of Mr. George Bassett, Fisherman, Petoni Beach	568	William Bassett, father	14 October 1869	Rev. C.M. Ryle & others
155	15 October 1869	James William Bruce Eliza Mary Kilgour	James William Durie Elinor Mary Kilgour 💍 1869/5907	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	Ngauranga Wellington	many years 6 years	Residence of the Rev. James S. Muir	556	James Kilgour, father	2 November 1869	Rev. James Muir & others
156	15 October 1869	Charles Hobbs Emma Marshall	Charles Hobbs Emma Marshall 💍 1869/5859	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville	16 months many years	Wesleyan Chapel, Manners Street	538	James Marshall, father	30 October 1869	Rev. W. Kirk & others
157	19 October 1869	Henry Bryden Blackburn Laura Izfulden	Henry Bryden Cockburn Laura Iggulden 💍 1869/5886	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 19	Wellington Wellington	10 months 5 years	Residence of Mr. Robert Blackburn, Kaiwara	549	Edward Izfulden, Father	19 October 1869	Rev. James Paterson & others

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 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).