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 238

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 June 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
10	9 April 1870	William Wallace Mary Jane Wallace	William Wallace Mary Jane Wallace 💍 1870/5586	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	Wanganui Wanganui	14 years 19 years	Private Residence of John Wallace No.2 Line, Wanganui	John Wallace, father	9 April 1870	Revd David Hogg
11	12 April 1870	Robert James Smith Mary Bradley	Robt James Smith Mary Bradley 💍 1870/5568	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	over over	Wanganui Wanganui	12 years 6 years	Dwelling house of Mrs V Bradley, River Bank		12 April 1870	Revd William Morley
12	13 April 1870	William Stewart Lind Elizabeth Old	William Stewart Lind Elizabeth Old 💍 1870/5589	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 17	Wanganui Wanganui	15 years 14 years	Dwelling House of John Old No: 2 Line	John Old, father	13 April 1870	Revd David Hogg
13	19 April 1870	William Harrison Gibson Eliza Grame Walker	William Harrison Gibson Eliza Grame Walker 💍 1870/5547	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 20	Wanganui Wanganui	15 years 15 years	St Pauls Church, Putiki Pah	John Walker, father	19 April 1870	Revd Basil K Taylor
14	28 April 1870	John Alexander Mary Hamilton	John Alexander Mary Hamilton 💍 1870/5571	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 24	Wanganui Wanganui	6 years 2 years	At Mr Hamilton's Residence, Campbell Place, Wanganui		28 April 1870	Revd J Elmslie
15	28 April 1870	Joseph Crozier Ellen Eleanor Garner	Joseph Crozier Ellen Eleanor Garner 💍 1870/5664	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	24 32	Wanganui Wanganui	3 years abt 14 years	In Mrs Garner's Private Residence, Wilson St., Wanganui		28 April 1870	Revd N. Morley
16	29 April 1870	Frederick Farr Ellen McConahy	Frederic Farr Ellen McConaghy 💍 1870/5625	Bachelor Widow	Labour	27 30	Wanganui Wanganui	3 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church at Wanganui		29 April 1870	Revd J. Lampila
17	29 April 1870	Henry Johnston Elizabeth Henson	Henry Johnston Elizabeth Henson 💍 1870/5553	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 6 years	In the Putiki Church at Wanganui		29 April 1870	Revd B Taylor
18	29 April 1870	Richard Reid Eliza Laird	Richard Reid Eliza Laird 💍 1870/5550	Bachelor Spinster	Sergt of Police	30 21	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 21 years	In the Putiki Church at Wanganui		29 April 1870	Revd B Taylor
19	10 May 1870	James Anderson Margaret Ramsay	James Anderson Mary Ann Ramsay 💍 1870/5574	Bachelor Widow	Upholsterer	26 26	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 4 1/2 years	At Mr. David Bell's Residence at Wanganui		10 May 1870	Revd J Elmslie

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).