Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, 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 [unknown]

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
79	31 August 1871	Ah Gee Jane Melbourne	Ah Gee Jane Melbourne 💍 1871/8679	Bachelor Spinster	Carver	24 20	Wellington Hutt	3½ years 14 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Hutt		James Gregory Buck, Guardian	31 August 1871	Rev. G. S. Harper
80	31 August 1871	Joseph Braden Harriet Gelen Innes	Joseph Braden Innes Harriet Helen Hutchings 💍 1871/4959	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	25 21	Wellington Wellington	5 years 21 years	House of J. B. Innes, Willis Street	M7/356		31 August 1871	Rev. J. Paterson
81	12 September 1871	Robert Morton Margaret Dickson Smith	Robert Morton Margaret Dickson Smith 💍 1871/4962	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	29 14	Wellington Wellington	4 days 14 years	House of John Smith	M7/357	John Smith, Father	12 September 1871	Rev. J. Paterson
82	14 September 1871	James Mowen Margaret Smith	James McEwen Margaret Smith 💍 1871/4893	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	45 29	Pahautanui Pahautanui	4 years 14 days	House of Rev. J. Moir	97271/333		14 September 1871	Rev. J. Moir
83	26 September 1871	John Marks Eliza Jane Levy	John Marks Eliza Jane Levy 💍 1871/4833	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	22 17	Wellington Wellington	6 yrs 17 years	Registrar's Office	M7/312	Solomon Levy, Father	26 September 1871	R. C. Hammerton
84	26 September 1871	Thomas Corbett Amelia Julia Branson		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 22	Hutt Hutt	23 yrs 12 yrs	St. James Church, Hutt				not issued
85	24 September 1871	James Jones Emily Ann Taylor	James Jones Emily Ann Taylor 💍 1871/4920	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Farmer	29 21	Pahautanui Tawa Flat	29 yrs 21 years	House of Rev. W. J. Dean	M7/342		24 September 1871	Rev. W. J. Dean

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).