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 342

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
15	16 February 1869	William Bayly Grace Mason Hill	William Bayley Grace Mason Hill 💍 1869/6582	Widower Spinster	Farmer	34 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 days 23 years	At the residence of Isaac Mason Hill, Waimea St: Nelson	786		16 February 1869	Rev. Willm Moore
16	17 February 1869	David Guthrie Beatson Helen Griffin	David Guthrie Beatson Helen Griffin 💍 1869/6588	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 12 months	At the residence of John Griffimiller Manuka St. Nelson	788		17 February 1869	Rev. Willm Moore
17	20 February 1869	Edwin Holdaway Helen Ramage Davidson	Edwin Holdaway Helen Ramage Davidson 💍 1869/6504	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 21	Richmond City of Nelson	18 years 12 years	At the residence of John Holdaway Farmer Richmond	760		20 February 1869	Rev. Robt Leslie
18	2 March 1869	Charles Smith Ann Robertson	Charles Smith Ann Robertson 💍 1869/6483 William Smith Annie Robertson 💍 1869/8427	Widower Spinster	Farmer	40 39	Suburban South City of Nelson	10 years 2 years	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	752		2 March 1869	Rev. Patrick Calder
19	2 March 1869	James Keill Margaret Hulsen Laing	James Keill Margaret Kulsen Laing 💍 1869/6435	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 29	Dove Dale City of Nelson	2 years 7 years	At the residence of John Laing Baker Waimea rd Nelson	736		2 March 1869	Rev. Patrick Calder
20	3 March 1869	William Smith Lucy Hargreaves	William Smith Lucy Hargraves 💍 1869/6438 William Smith Jane Grove 💍 1869/4872 William Smith Mary Avery 💍 1869/5391	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	27 21	Nelson City Nelson City	2 years 21 years	At the residence of Fredk John Hingston Storekeeper Waimea St. Nelson	737		3 March 1869	Rev. John Crump
21	8 March 1869	William Charles Harley Laura Harriett Blackmore	William Charles Horley Laura Harriette Blackmore 💍 1869/6555	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	33 33	City of Nelson City of Nelson	27 years 12 years	At Christchurch Nelson	777		8 March 1869	Rev. Geo: Henry
22	8 March 1869	Malcolm Stevenson Annie Coombs	Malcolm Stevenson Annie Coombs 💍 1869/6510	Bachelor Spinster	Cloth maker	26 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	1 month 22 years	At the residence of Henry Coombs Gardener Grove St. Nelson	761		8 March 1869	Rev. Edward Thomas
23	11 March 1869	Arthur Davis Harford Wilhelmina Maria Balck	Arthur Davis Harford Wilhelmina Maria Balck 💍 1869/6498	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 18	Hope Hope	20 years 18 years	At the residence of James Harford Farmer Hope	757	James Harford, father & John Balck, father	13 March 1869	Rev. John Davis
24	12 March 1869	William Jeffreys Cruckshank Bryant Hannah Higgins	William Jeffrey C Bryant Hannah Higgins 💍 1869/6444	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 19	Spring Grove Spring Grove	6 months 19 years	At the residence of Sydney Higgins Spring Grove	753
25	13 March 1869	Thomas Watts Eleanor White	Thomas Watts Eleanor White 💍 1869/6513	Widower Widow	Sailor	62 49	City of Nelson City of Nelson	13 years 4 years	At the residence of Thomas Watts Sailor Grove St: Nelson	763		29 March 1869	Rev. Edward Thomas
26	29 March 1869	John William Sutcliffe Georgiana Oxley	John William Sutcliffe Georgina Oxley 💍 1869/6534	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	24 25	District of Baton City of Nelson	6 years 2 years	At All Saints Church Nelson	770		29 March 1869	Rev. Richd Joshua

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).