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 258

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
6	29 January 1870	Henry Kelmister Elizabeth George	Henry Kilmister Elizabeth George 💍 1870/5736	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 years 18 years	Karori Tinakan Road	30 years 18 years	Residence of Mrs Thomas George, Tinakan Road	Thomas George, Father	14 February 1870	Rev John Moir & others
7	31 January 1870	Andrew McEwen Mary Ann Scrimshaw	Andrew McEwen Marianne Scrimshaw 💍 1870/5952	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 1/2 years 17 years	Hutt do	17 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Lower Hutt	David McEwen, Father, George Scrimshaw, Father	5 February 1870	Rev Eugene Pertuis & others
8	2 February 1870	Edward Press Jane Allison	George Edward Press Jane Ellison 💍 1870/6024	Bachelor Spinster	Wood turner	31 years 24 years	Wellington do	2 years many years	St Pauls Cathedral, Wellington		2 February 1870	Rev W. H. Ewald M.A. & others
9	5 February 1870	Alfred Mifted Emma Thompson	Alfred Mexted Emma Thomson 💍 1870/5961	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 17 1/2 years	La Raku do	24 years 17 1/2 years	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Sydney Street	Eliza Harrison, Mother	5 February 1870	Rev Robert Ward & others
10	7 February 1870	Frederick Walter Story Agnes Gordon	Frederick Walter Story Agnes Gordon 💍 1870/5784	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	28 years 26 years	Wellington do	2 years 4 years	Residence of the Rev James Paterson, Wellington Terrace		7 February 1870	Rev James Paterson & others
11	8 February 1870	Joseph Norval Bell Eleanor Stockbridge	Joseph Norval Bell Eleanor Stockbridge 💍 1870/5916	Bachelor Spinster	Mercantile clerk	24 years 21 1/2 years	Wellington Ohiro	3 years many years	St Peters, Wellington		8 February 1870	Rev A. Stock B.A. & others
12	14 February 1870	Charles Burford South Furlong Mary Ann Martin	Charles Burford South Furlong Mary Ann Martin 💍 1870/6006	Bachelor Spinster	Grazier	34 years 21 1/2 years	Huangarua at present Wellington do	14 days many years	Registrars Office, Wellington		14 February 1870	Reg. of Marriages Dist of Wellington & others
13	14 February 1870	James Lawrie Elizabeth Rodgers	James Lawrie Elizabeth Rodgers 💍 1870/3818	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	35 years 26 years	Wellington Wellington	5 years many years	Congregational Church, Sweets Woodware Street		14 February 1870	Rev W. M. Fell & 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).