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 341

District of Nelson Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
1	2 January 1869	Thomas Richard Fisher Frances Annie Hadfield	Thomas Richard Fisher Frances Annie Hadfield 💍 1869/6417	Widower Spinster	Merchant	30 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church, Hardy Street, Nelson	730	Frederick Brown Hadfield, Father	2 January 1869	Rev. John Crump
2	3 January 1869	Edward Thomas Margaret Boyd	Edward Thomas Margaret Boyd 💍 1869/6474	Widower Spinster	Baptist Minister	65 37	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 years 1 year	Residence of William Murray Thompson, Esquire, Collingwood Street, Nelson	749		2 January 1869	Rev. Patrick Calder
3	5 January 1869	George Gibbs Ann Susannah Brown	George Gibbs Anne Susannah Brown 💍 1869/6420	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 22	Wakefield Spring Grove	10 years 8 years	Residence of the Rev. John Crump, Hardy Street, Nelson	731		2 January 1869	Rev. John Crump
4	15 January 1869	Joseph Crisp Mary Ann Lines	Joseph Crisp Mary Ann Lines 💍 1869/6432	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	21 20	City of Nelson Naima East	21 years 20 years	Residence of Benjamin Crisp, Hardy Street, Nelson	735	Thomas Lines, Father	16 February 1869	Rev. John Crump
5	23 January 1869	Charles Hughes Hesketh Elizabeth Ann Cotton	Charles Hughes Hesketh Elizabeth Ann Cotton 💍 1869/6507 Charles Thomas Page Elizabeth Cotton 💍 1869/5694	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 7 years	Residence of Frank Akersten, Contractor, Nile Street East, Nelson	761		23 January 1869	Rev. Edward Thomas
6	23 January 1869	George Sascon Caroline Augusta Dowker	George Saxon Caroline Augusta Dowker 💍 1869/9627	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	28 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 years 2 years	All Saints Church, Nelson	1838		23 January 1869	Rev. Rich Joshua Thorpe
7	27 January 1869	Walter Morey Martha Elizabeth Green	Walter Morey Martha Elizabeth Green 💍 1869/6426	Bachelor Spinster	Draper's Assistant	24 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	21 months 2 years	Residence of Edward Green, Gentleman, Collingwood Street, Nelson	733		27 January 1869	Rev. John Crump
8	30 January 1869	James Camp Mary Goodman	James Camp Mary Goodman 💍 1869/6405	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	22 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 17 years	Residence of Thomas Goodman, Baker, Motueka	726	Thomas Goodman, Father	30 January 1869	Rev. John Crump
9	3 February 1869	John Carter Sarah Miles	John Carter Sarah Miles 💍 1869/6429	Bachelor Widow	Miner	36 32	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 5 years	Residence of George King, Grocer, Bridge Street, Nelson	734		3 February 1869	Rev. John Crump
10	5 February 1869	Hans John Henry Eggers Louisa Margaret Hammerich	Hans John Henry Eggers Louise Margreth Hammerich 💍 1869/6396	Widower Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Upper Moutere Upper Moutere	3 years 22 years	Lutheran Church, Upper Moutere	723		5 February 1869	Rev. John Will. Chr. Heine
11	8 February 1869	John McIntosh Euphemia Watt Bentley	John McIntosh Euphemia Watt Bentley 💍 1869/6480	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	30 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 10 years	Residence of James Bentley, Merchant, The Port, Nelson	757	James Bentley, Father	8 February 1869	Rev. Patrick Calder
12	11 February 1869	Richard Stevens Mary Ann Julia Staples	Richard Stevens Mary Ann Julia Staples 💍 1869/6531	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	30 35	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 1 year	All Saints Church, Nelson	1769		11 February 1869	Rev. Rich. Joshua Thorpe
13	12 February 1869	William Cooksey Matilda Nobbs		Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	34 34	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 5 years	Residence of William Cooksey, New Street, Nelson			12 February 1869	Rev. Patrick Calder
14	13 February 1869	Arthur Henry Beatson Jane Isabella McHardy	Arthur Henry Beatson Jane Isabella McHardy 💍 1869/6585	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 4 days	Residence of Silas McHardy, Brook Street, Nelson	787		1 March 1869	Rev. William Moore Biss

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).