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 281

District of Waipukurau 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

29 July 1869

William Rathbone
Lissie Allow

William Rathbone
Lizzie Arrow
💍 1869/6150

Bachelor
Spinster

Store-keeper

36
22

Waipawa
Waipawa

10 yrs
1/2 yrs

At the house of William Rathbone, Waipawa

639

Henry Allow

29 July 1869

Rev. Samuel Williams

No	44
Date of Notice	29 July 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Rathbone	Lissie Allow
BDM Match (83%)	William Rathbone	Lizzie Arrow
	💍 1869/6150
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Store-keeper
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	Waipawa	Waipawa
Length of Residence	10 yrs	1/2 yrs
Marriage Place	At the house of William Rathbone, Waipawa
Folio	639
Consent	Henry Allow
Date of Certificate	29 July 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Williams

29 July 1869

John Pottit
Maggie Sullivan

John Pettit
Maggie Sullivan
💍 1869/6156

Bachelor
Spinster

Store-man
Domestic servant

26
19

Waipukurau
Waipawa

5 years
5 yrs

At the residence of Rev. Samuel Williams, Le Aute

641

Mary McDermatt

29 July 1869

Rev. Samuel Williams

No	45
Date of Notice	29 July 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Pottit	Maggie Sullivan
BDM Match (95%)	John Pettit	Maggie Sullivan
	💍 1869/6156
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Store-man	Domestic servant
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipawa
Length of Residence	5 years	5 yrs
Marriage Place	At the residence of Rev. Samuel Williams, Le Aute
Folio	641
Consent	Mary McDermatt
Date of Certificate	29 July 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Williams

31 July 1869

Thomas Paterson
Catherine Hicht

Thomas Tolertin
Catherine Bell
💍 1869/9618

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Domestic servant

24
27

Hampden
Hampden

12 mths
3 days

At the house of James Matthews, Hampden

676

31 July 1869

Rev. Euloge Regnier

No	46
Date of Notice	31 July 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Paterson	Catherine Hicht
BDM Match (67%)	Thomas Tolertin	Catherine Bell
	💍 1869/9618
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Domestic servant
Age	24	27
Dwelling Place	Hampden	Hampden
Length of Residence	12 mths	3 days
Marriage Place	At the house of James Matthews, Hampden
Folio	676
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Euloge Regnier

2 August 1869

John Cleary
Margaret Goodall

John Clery
Margaret Goodall
💍 1869/6261

Bachelor
Widow

Shoemaker

37
28

Hampden
Hampden

4 mths
3 yrs

At the house of Margaret Goodall, Hampden

699

2 August 1869

Rev. Euloge Regnier

No	47
Date of Notice	2 August 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Cleary	Margaret Goodall
BDM Match (95%)	John Clery	Margaret Goodall
	💍 1869/6261
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Shoemaker
Age	37	28
Dwelling Place	Hampden	Hampden
Length of Residence	4 mths	3 yrs
Marriage Place	At the house of Margaret Goodall, Hampden
Folio	699
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 August 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Euloge Regnier

25 August 1869

John White
Fanny Selley

John White
Fanny Sebley
💍 1869/3297

Bachelor
Spinster

Publican
Domestic servant

29
19

Waipukurau
Napier

3 days
9 yrs

At the church, Le Aute, Napier

642

25 August 1869

Rev. Samuel Williams

No	48
Date of Notice	25 August 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John White	Fanny Selley
BDM Match (96%)	John White	Fanny Sebley
	💍 1869/3297
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Publican	Domestic servant
Age	29	19
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Napier
Length of Residence	3 days	9 yrs
Marriage Place	At the church, Le Aute, Napier
Folio	642
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 August 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Williams

14 September 1869

Charles Days
Elizabeth Miluro

Charles Days
Elizabeth Munro
💍 1869/6159

Bachelor
Spinster

Ship-wright
Domestic Servant

28
22

Waipukurau
Waipukurau

3 days
3 days

At the church, Le Aute

643

14 September 1869

Rev. Samuel Williams

No	49
Date of Notice	14 September 1869
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Days	Elizabeth Miluro
BDM Match (91%)	Charles Days	Elizabeth Munro
	💍 1869/6159
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ship-wright	Domestic Servant
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Waipukurau
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the church, Le Aute
Folio	643
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 September 1869
Officiating Minister	Rev. Samuel Williams

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).