Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 307

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1872 Registrar Robert Pickett

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

Joseph Vicara Cordoza
Ellen Land

Joseph Vieara Cardoza
Ellen Land
💍 1872/8606

VIDE LAST RETURN

72/2350

31 July 1872

Rev. Antoine Marie Garin

No	30
Date of Notice
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Vicara Cordoza	Ellen Land
BDM Match (95%)	Joseph Vieara Cardoza	Ellen Land
	💍 1872/8606
Condition	VIDE LAST RETURN
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio	72/2350
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin

2 July 1872

Charles Augustine Baker Gabb
Eliza Nugent Cundy

Charles Augustine Baker Gabb
Eliza Nugent Cundy
💍 1872/666

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

27
22

City of Nelson
Suburban South

4 days
10 years

at St. Marys Catholic church in Nelson

72/2349

2 July 1872

Rev. Antoine Marie Garin

No	33
Date of Notice	2 July 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Augustine Baker Gabb	Eliza Nugent Cundy
	💍 1872/666
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	Suburban South
Length of Residence	4 days	10 years
Marriage Place	at St. Marys Catholic church in Nelson
Folio	72/2349
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin

2 August 1872

William Biggs
Idabella Lovelace Sharp

William Biggs
Isabella Loveday Sharp
💍 1872/8591

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
21

City of Nelson
City of Nelson

3 days
3 days

at the residence of The Rev. Edw. Thomas, Manuka Street, Nelson

72/2344

2 August 1872

Rev. Decimus Dolamore

No	34
Date of Notice	2 August 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Biggs	Idabella Lovelace Sharp
BDM Match (91%)	William Biggs	Isabella Loveday Sharp
	💍 1872/8591
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	City of Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	at the residence of The Rev. Edw. Thomas, Manuka Street, Nelson
Folio	72/2344
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 August 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. Decimus Dolamore

7 August 1872

Rudolpho De Campo
Elizabeth Devanny

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

28
17

City of Nelson
City of Nelson

3 days
17 years

at the Catholic Church, Nelson

Andrew Devanny, Father

7 August 1872

Rev. Antoine Marie Garin

No	35
Date of Notice	7 August 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rudolpho De Campo	Elizabeth Devanny
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	28	17
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	City of Nelson
Length of Residence	3 days	17 years
Marriage Place	at the Catholic Church, Nelson
Folio
Consent	Andrew Devanny, Father
Date of Certificate	7 August 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin

13 August 1872

John Diedrich Beuke
Milhelmina Christina Caroline Fredericka Lankow

Johann Dietrich Beuke
Wilhelmine Christine Caroline Friderieka Lankow
💍 1872/8621

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
21

Waimea East
Waimea East

8 years
21 years

at the Lutheran Church, Ranzau

72/2355

28 August 1872

Rev. Christian Frederick Meyer

No	36
Date of Notice	13 August 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Diedrich Beuke	Milhelmina Christina Caroline Fredericka Lankow
BDM Match (88%)	Johann Dietrich Beuke	Wilhelmine Christine Caroline Friderieka Lankow
	💍 1872/8621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Waimea East	Waimea East
Length of Residence	8 years	21 years
Marriage Place	at the Lutheran Church, Ranzau
Folio	72/2355
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 August 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. Christian Frederick Meyer

13 September 1872

Charles King Turner
Catherine Matilda Harvey

Charles King Turner
Catharine Matilda Harvey
💍 1872/8582

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

24
22

City of Nelson
Suburban North

24 years
16 years

at the Presbyterian Church, Nelson

72/2341

13 September 1872

Rev. Patrick Calder

No	37
Date of Notice	13 September 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles King Turner	Catherine Matilda Harvey
BDM Match (98%)	Charles King Turner	Catharine Matilda Harvey
	💍 1872/8582
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	City of Nelson	Suburban North
Length of Residence	24 years	16 years
Marriage Place	at the Presbyterian Church, Nelson
Folio	72/2341
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 September 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. Patrick Calder

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1903. 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).