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 280

District of Wellington 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
121	5 December 1870	James Smith Mary Sharp	James Smith Mary Sharp 💍 1870/9462	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	24 21	Nairncaapa at present Wellington Wellington	2 weeks 3 mos	Residence of Mr Henry Farr Smith, Martin Street, Te Aro			5 December 1870	Rev. John Moir & others
122	7 December 1870	Issac Smith Margaret Ann Brogden	Isaac Smith Margaret Ann Brogden 💍 1870/5949	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	28 27	Paikakariki Porerna	11 years about 10	St Peters Church, Te Aro			9 December 1870	Ven. Archdeacon Stock & others
123	13 December 1870	Arthur Fisk Elizabeth Ann Payton	Arthur Fisk Elizabeth Ann Payton 💍 1870/5712	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	25 19	Wellington Herbert Street	4 years 19	Residence of Mr Charles Joseph Payton, Herbert Street		Charles Joseph Payton, Father	13 December 1870	Rev. John Dumbell & others
124	15 December 1870	Robert Carswell Lydia Dodds	Robert Carswell Lydia Dodds 💍 1870/5778	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 23	Wellington Adelaide Road	18 years 23	Residence of Mr John Carswell, Adelaide Road			15 December 1870	Rev. John Moir & others
125	15 December 1870	Robert Livingston Margaret Somerville	John Livingston Margaret Somerville 💍 1870/6021	Bachelor Spinster	Letter	30 21 1/2	Wellington Wellington	2 years about 3 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	136		16 December 1870	Reg. of Marriages, Wellington & others
126	15 December 1870	James Ames Sarah Poulton	James Ames Sarah Poulton 💍 1870/6081	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 24	Wellington Hill Street	20 years 3	Residence of Mr John J Gamble, Hill Street			15 December 1870	Rev. M. M Fell & others
127	19 December 1870	James Furnishing Igglesden Selina Julia Burtis	Charles Moore Igglesden Selina Julia Curtis 💍 1870/5727	Widower Spinster	C. E. Architect	58 27	Wellington Christchurch at present Wellington	11 mos 4 days	Residence of the Rev Lance Cumming, Bolton Street			19 December 1870	Rev. James Furnishing & 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 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).