Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 401

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1873

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
1	8 January 1873	William Twist Amiedee Woolfenden	William Twist Annie Lee Woolfenden 💍 1873/5533	Bachelor Spinster	Liverystable Keeper	27 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	7 years 18 years	At the residence of said William Twist, Church St. Nelson	73/244		8 January 1873	Rev. Edward Thomas
2	10 January 1873	Samuel Dession Lash Sarah Ann Dement	Samuel Dession Lash Sarah Ann Dement 💍 1873/9040	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 weeks 16 years	At All Saints Church Nelson	73/1437		10 January 1873	Rev. Richard Joshua Thorpe
3	11 January 1873	John Patrick Milligan Eugenie Catherine Steveneaux	John Patrick Milligan Eugenie Catherine Eteveneaux 💍 1873/5524	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 16	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 days 5 days	At St Marys Catholic Church Nelson	73/241	I. B. Crevineaux, Father	11 January 1873	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
4	14 January 1873	Henry James Gilbert Elizabeth Duncan	"not married by"	Widower Widow	Coachman	28 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	6 years 10 years	At the residence of Henry James Gilbert, South Street Nelson		Not married by	14 January 1873	Revd Edward Thomas
5	15 January 1873	Thomas Sebastian Stapleton Hannah Henry	Thomas Sebastian Stapleton Hannah Henry 💍 1873/5527	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At St Marys Catholic Church Nelson	73/242		15 January 1873	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
6	15 January 1873	James McEachen Agnes Slatter	James McEachen Agnes Slatter 💍 1873/5470	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	8 years 20 years	At the residence of Sarah Slatter, widow, Nile St. East Nelson	73/222		30 January 1873	Rev. William I. Watkin
7	17 January 1873	Thomas Henry Foy Alice Winsett	Thomas Henry Foy Alice Wimsett 💍 1873/5536	Widower Spinster	Butcher	33 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	2 years 1 year	At the residence of Thomas Foy, farmer, Franklin Street Nelson	73/245			Not issued
8	22 January 1873	George Hoome Binning Monro Isabella Selina Baldwin	George Home Binning Monro Isabella Selina Baldwin 💍 1873/5440	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	32 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At Christ Church Nelson	73/212		22 January 1873	Rev. George Henry Johnshone
9	30 January 1873	Alfred Frost Emily Wright	Alfred Frost Emily Wright 💍 1873/8152	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	14 years 7 years	At the "London Tavern", Haven Road Nelson	73/1132		30 January 1873	Rev. Patrick Calder
11	8 February 1873	William Robinson Stewart Emma Gledhill	William Robinson Stewart Emma Gladhill 💍 1873/5791	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 21	City of Nelson Mainia West, Waimea West	16 years 21 years	At the residence of James Gledhill			8 February 1873	Rev. William Carmell
12	17 February 1873	Charles Crouk Dorothea Sophia Cathrina Hammerich	Charles Cronk Dorothea Sophia Cathrina Hammerich 💍 1873/5521	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 10 years	At the residence of Charles John Henry Hammerich, farmer, Gloucester St. Nelson	73/240	Charles John Henry Hammerich, Father	17 February 1873	Rev. William Moore Biss

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).