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 259

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
14	15 February 1870	Samuel John Deck Ann Carroll	Samuel John Deck Ann Carroll 💍 1870/5964	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	37 34	Wellington Wellington	4 days 6 weeks	The Residence of Mr. Capper, Brougham St		15 February 1870	Rev. Robert Ward & others
15	17 February 1870	Trader Charles Benns Harriet Mills	Frederick Charles Binns Harriet Mills 💍 1870/5910	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	26 nearly 20	Wellington Wellington	5 years 19 years	St. Peters Church, Te Aro	Ellen Mills, mother	17 February 1870	Rev. Arthur Stock, B.A & others
16	21 February 1870	Lawrence Perrum Mary Louisa Twyford-Jones	Lawrence Perrin Mary Louisa Twyford-Jones 💍 1870/5970	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	31 20	Wellington Wellington	6 years 12 years	Residence of Mrs. Wilson, Willis Street	Mary Wilson, Mother	8 March 1870	Rev Robert Ward & others
17	22 February 1870	George Golston Sage Jane Elizabeth Scott	George Colston Sage Jane Elizabeth Scott 💍 1870/5967	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	26 nearly 18	Wellington Wellington	3 years 5 years	Residence of W.R. Scott, Willis Street	Robert Scott, father	22 February 1870	Rev Robert Ward & others
18	23 February 1870	Antonio Valice Mary Ann Griffiths	Antonio Valice Mary Ann Griffiths 💍 1870/5859	Bachelor Widow	Fisherman	30 34	Wellington Wellington	4 years 16 years	St. Marys Cathedral, Thorndon		10 March 1870	Rev J.B. Petit Jean & others
19	23 February 1870	Carl Leopold Anderson Louisa Mary Minifie	Carl Leopold Anderson Louisa Mary Minifie 💍 1870/6090	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	28 20	Cuba Street, Wellington Wellington	6 years many years	Wesleyan Church, Manners Street	Josiah Minifie, father	23 February 1870	Rev William Kirk & others
20	24 February 1870	David Billman Mary Jane Barnard	David Billman Mary Jane Barnard 💍 1870/5973	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 nearly 21	Ngamanga Wellington	2 years many years	Residence of Mr. G. Billman, Ngamanga		24 March 1870	Rev Robert Ward Colless
21	24 February 1870	Sam Yates Eliza Ann Joy	Sam Yates Eliza Ann Fox 💍 1870/6087	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	23 19	Wellington Wellington	many years many years	Residence of Mr. John Brown, Molisworth Street	Elizabeth Brown, Mother	24 February 1870	Rev William Kirk & others

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).