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 405

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 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
16	3 April 1873	Joseph Holden Elizabeth Wrattan	Joseph Holden Elizabeth Wrattan 💍 1873/8143	Widower Widow	Carpenter Carpenter	43 44	Waimea West Waimea West	6 years 30 years	At the residence of William Stewart, Waimea St. Nelson	73/1129		3 April 1873	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
19	25 April 1873	Adolph Wahlsthom Mary Ann Charles	Adolph Wahlström Mary Ann Charles 💍 1873/8173	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	31 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	9 years 2 years	At the residence of Rev. Edw. Thomas, Manuka St. Nelson	73/1139		25 April 1873	Rev. Edward Thomas
20	29 April 1873	Thomas Kilgour Elizabeth Brooks	Thomas Kilgour Elizabeth Brooks 💍 1873/8119	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	37 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 14 years	At the residence of The Rev. Will. moore Biss, Tasman St. Nelson	73/1121		29 April 1873	Rev. William Moore Biss
21	1 May 1873	Charles Haslam Catherine McCormack	Charles Haslam Catherine McCormack 💍 1873/8140	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	28 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	24 years 7 years	At St. Marys Catholic Church, Nelson	73/1128		16 May 1873	Rev. Antoine M. Garin
22	2 May 1873	Peter Pierson Minnie Beckman	Peter Pierson Minnie Beckman 💍 1873/8137	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	40 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 years 3 years	At St. Marys Catholic Church, Nelson	73/1127		2 May 1873	Rev. Antoine M. Garin
23	2 May 1873	William Chapman Ricketts Sarah Elizabeth Sharp	William Chapman Ricketts Sarah Elizabeth Sharp 💍 1873/8107	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	29 years 1 year	At the residence of William Chapman Ricketts, Shelburne St. Nelson	73/1117		17 May 1873	Rev. Thomas Buddle
24	8 May 1873	Joseph Jennens Alice Maud Franklyn	Joseph Jennens Alice Maud Franklin 💍 1873/8146	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	23 years 2 years	At the residence of Joseph Jennens, Halifax St. Nelson	73/1130		8 May 1873	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
25	22 May 1873	Charles James Hill Agnes Sherratt	Charles James Hill Agnes Sherratt 💍 1873/8194	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 10 years	At Christ Church, Nelson	73/1146		22 May 1873	Rev. Geo. Henry Johnstone
27	28 May 1873	Thomas Kilgour Elizabeth Brooks	Thomas Kilgour Elizabeth Brooks 💍 1873/8119	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	37 18	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 years 14 years	At the residence of The Rev. William Moore Biss, Tasman St. Nelson	73/1121	William Brooks, Father	28 May 1873	Rev. William Moore Biss
29	19 June 1873	Peter Bartrum Packard Jane Elizabeth Baird	Peter Bartram Packard Jane Elizabeth Baird 💍 1873/8155	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Shoemaker	24 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 2 weeks	At the residence of George Batchelor, Nile St. West Nelson	73/1133		19 June 1873	Rev. Patrick Calder
30	19 June 1873	Daniel Hannagan Clara Annie Folchmann	Daniel Hannagan Clara Folkmann 💍 1873/8125	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 20	City of Nelson City of Nelson	8 years 10 years	At St. Marys Catholic Church	73/1125	Ellen Folchmann, mother	24 June 1873	Rev. Antoine M. Garin

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).