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 359

District of Nelson 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	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	4 January 1870	George Biggs Clara Kite	George Biggs Clara Kite 💍 1870/6567	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 18	Richmond Richmond	4 days 18 years	At the White Hart Hotel Richmond		Lucy Kite, mother	4 January 1870	Rev. Edward Thomas
2	4 January 1870	James Johnson Grace Eliza Freeman	James Johnson Grace Eliza Freeman 💍 1870/6573	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	10 years 24 years	At the residence of James Johnson, cabinet maker, Collingwood St, Nelson			25 January 1870	Rev. Edward Thomas
3	5 January 1870	Charles Oliver Mules Laura Blundell	Charles Oliver Mules Laura Blundell 💍 1870/6519	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in orders	32 27	Spring Grove Maimea West	2 years 18 years	At St. Michael's Church			5 January 1870	The Bishop of Nelson
4	5 January 1870	Findley McArthur Elizabeth Gibson	Findlay McArthur Elizabeth Gibson 💍 1870/6474	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 years 4 years	At the Presbyterian Church in Nelson	829/70		5 January 1870	Rev. Patrick Calder
5	11 January 1870	John Satching Fanny Flemming	John Patching Fanny Flemming 💍 1870/3805	Bachelor Spinster	Tin smith	22 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	11 years 13 years	At the residence of the Rev. Edw Thomas, Manuka St, Nelson			11 January 1870	Rev. Edward Thomas
6	18 January 1870	Alfred Parmenter Matilda Johnson	Alfred Parminter Matilda Johnson 💍 1870/6570	Widower Spinster	Builder Cabinet maker	36 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 years 9 years	At the residence of James Johnson, Collingwood St, Nelson			27 January 1870	Rev. Edward Thomas
7	13 January 1870	Fleming Pinkston O'Reilly Elizabeth O'Reilly Blackwood	Fleming Pinkston O'Reilly Elizabeth O'Reilly Blackwood 💍 1870/6537	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	35 28	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 days 4 weeks	At Christ Church Nelson			15 January 1870	Rev. Richard Joshua Thorpe
8	15 January 1870	Frederick Spear Lucy Burfield Galland	Frederick Spears Lucy Burfield Galland 💍 1870/6468	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	31 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 4 years	At the residence of William Chivers Wilkins, Manuka St, Nelson			29 January 1870	Rev. William Moore Biss
9	24 January 1870	Peter Buchanan Isabella Robertson	Peter Buchanan Isabella Robertson 💍 1870/6504	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	37 34	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 months 4 years	At the residence of William Haddock, Washington Road			24 January 1870	Rev. John Crump
10	27 January 1870	John Fiven Adeline Jasper	John Feven Adeline Jasper 💍 1870/6576	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	26 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	26 years 25 years	At the residence of John Fiven, blacksmith, Jory St, Nelson			27 January 1870	Rev. Edward Thomas
11	27 January 1870	John Hook Clara Anna Mathews	John Hook Clara Anna Mathews 💍 1870/6540	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	27 17	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 7 years	At Christ Church Nelson		Sarah Ann Haynes, mother	27 January 1870	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnston
12	31 January 1870	James Smith Cross Elizabeth Askew	James Smith Cross Elizabeth Askew 💍 1870/6477	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	26 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 years 19 years	At the residence of Thomas Askew, Hotel keeper, near Nile St East, Nelson		Thomas Askew, father	31 January 1870	Rev. Patrick Calder
13	31 January 1870	Henry Young Mary Ann Arey	Henry Young Mary Ann Grey 💍 1870/3799	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	26 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 days 9 days	At Christ Church Nelson				not issued - vide No 18.
14	2 February 1870	John Haycock Sarah Robins	John Haycock Sarah Robins 💍 1870/6444	Widower Widow	Sheep farmer	51 48	Waimea East Waimea East	1 year 2 weeks	At the residence of said John Haycock, Waimea East			2 February 1870	Rev. James A. Taylor
15	12 February 1870	William George Kemp Charlotte Greenwood	William George Kemp Charlotte Greenwood 💍 1870/6546	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	23 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	18 months 4 years	At Christ Church Nelson		John D. Greenwood, father	12 February 1870	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone

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 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).