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 241

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 December 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
35	7 October 1870	William Scown Mary Lett Divorced wife of J. Lett	William Scown Mary Lett 💍 1870/5673	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs 23 yrs	In the Private Residence of W. Scown, Wanganui		7 October 1870	Revd. N. Morley
36	31 October 1870	Charles William Budge Anna Cranston	Charles Samuel Budge Anna Cranstone 💍 1870/5676	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	36 28	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs 3 yrs	In M.J. Sharpe's Private Residence, Wanganui		31 October 1870	Revd. N. Morley
37	17 November 1870	Charles Henry Parkes Eliza Emma Roots	Charles Henry Parkes Eliza Emma Roots 💍 1870/5682	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	Wanganui Wanganui	23 yrs 18 yrs	In Thos Roots Private Residence, Wanganui		17 November 1870	Revd. N. Morley
38	19 November 1870	John Doole Jane Frances Old	John Doyle Jane Frances Old 💍 1870/5595	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 20	Wairoa Wanganui	1 year 16 yrs	In the private Residence of Mr Old , Wanganui		19 November 1870	Revd. D. Hogg
39	2 December 1870	Edward Nolloth Liffiton Charlotte Frances Chadwick	Edward Nolloth Liffiton Charlotte Frances Chadwick 💍 1870/5679	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 18	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months Nearly 6 years	In the Private Residence of Mr Chadwick, Wanganui		2 December 1870	Revd. N. Morley
40	9 December 1870	John Klaas Eliza Hardwick	John Klaas Eliza Hardwick 💍 1870/5598	Bachelor Widow	Cooper Cooper	36 45	Rangitikei Rangitikei	2 years 18 yrs	At Mr Campbells Private Residence, Wanganui		9 December 1870	Revd. D. Hogg
41	28 December 1870	John Hoskins Edith Hunter	John Hoskins Edith Hunter 💍 1871/5034	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 24	Wanganui Wanganui	12 years 3 months	At the Residence of Mrs Rankin, Wanganui	71/382	28 December 1870	Revd. D. Hogg
42	30 December 1870	John Darroch Mary Fagan	James Darroch Mary Fagan 💍 1870/5637	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 25	Wanganui Wanganui	8 months 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui		30 December 1870	Revd. J. Lampilla
43	31 December 1870	Edward Penford Ann Bond	Edward Penfold Ann Bond 💍 1871/5007	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 17	Wanganui Wanganui	23 years 17 years	At the private Residence of N. Askew, Wanganui	71/372	31 December 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).