Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 239

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
25	7 July 1870	Charles Richard Gibbins Margaret McKenzie	Charles Richard Gibbons Margaret McKenzie 💍 1870/5577	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 22	Wairoa near Wanganui Wairoa near Wanganui	2 years 10 months	At the Presbyterian Church, Wanganui		7 July 1870	Revd. John Elmslie
26	25 July 1870	Charles Chalklin Jane Hollis	Charles Chalkin Jane Hollis 💍 1870/5667	Bachelor Widow	Pensioner	46 42	Wanganui Wanganui	9 years 1 year	In Mr Chalklin's house, Wanganui		25 July 1870	Revd. N. Morley
27	23 July 1870	Edward James Morgan Emily Wright	Edmond James Morgan Emily Wright 💍 1870/5646	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 15 years	In Mr J Wright's Private House at Wanganui		23 July 1870	Revd. C.H.S. Nicholls
28	24 July 1870	Frederick Wm. Rolfe Selina Julia Curtis	No Certificate issued [No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Sub Ed. Wanganui Herald	27 26	Wanganui Wanganui	3 years 5 months	In the Episcopal Church, Wanganui	No certificate issued
29	4 August 1870	Henry Doble Annie Dean	Henry Doble Annie Deane 💍 1870/5649	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	24 22	Wanganui Wanganui	5 months 3 years	In the Episcopal Church, Wanganui		4 August 1870	Revd. C.H.S. Nicholls
30	26 August 1870	John Lamont Margaret Moore	John Lamont Margaret Moore 💍 1870/5580	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	38 36	Wanganui Wanganui	6 years 3 years	At Mr Currie's Private Residence, Southern No.4, Wanganui		26 August 1870	Revd. John Elmslie
31	29 August 1870	Ralph Allen Daniell Mary Imlay	Relph Allan Daniell Mary Imlay 💍 1870/5652	Bachelor Spinster	Esquire	25 21	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months 14 years	In Mr Imlay's Private Residence at Balgownie, Wanganui		29 August 1870	Revd. C.H.S. Nicholls
32	7 September 1870	Patrick Talty Mary Gorman	Patrick Talty Mary Gorman 💍 1870/5628	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	31 27	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui		7 September 1870	Revd. John Lampilla
33	7 September 1870	Edward McArtney Jane Ward	Edward Macartney Rebecca Jane Ward 💍 1870/5670	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	21 18	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 4 years	In John Armstrong's House at Wanganui	John Wilson Armstrong, Guardian	7 September 1870	Revd. N. Morley

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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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 1899. 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).