Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 443

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 December 1874

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
58	10 October 1874	John Disher Elizabeth Hooker	John Disher Fruzann Elizabeth Hooker 💍 1874/12454	Widower Spinster	Publican	32 21	City of Nelson Waimea East	18 years 7 years	At the residence of Robert Hooker, Waimea East	2253		10 October 1874	Rev. Edward Thomas
59	13 October 1874	Philip Best Eliza Ann Bartlett	Philip Best Eliza Ann Bartlett 💍 1874/13432	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 19	Appleby Appleby	23 years 7 years	At the residence of John Bartlett, Appleby	2585	John Bartlett, Father	13 October 1874	Rev. Thomason Sherar
60	19 October 1874	John McCleary Sarah Newport	John McCleary Sarah Newport 💍 1874/12487	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	23 23	Nelson City Collingwood St, Nelson	10 months 23 years	At the residence of Elizabeth Wakefield, Nelson	2264		2 November 1874	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
61	19 October 1874	William John Gibbons Jane Hurford	William John Gibbons Jane Hurford 💍 1874/13216	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	26 17	City of Nelson Stoke	12 years 10 years	At the residence of John Atto Scott, Milton Grove, Nelson	2512	Ann Shedy, mother	19 October 1874	Rev. Patrick Calder
62	20 October 1874	John Caute the younger Mary Amelia Cawthron	John Cawte Jr Mary Amelia Cawthron 💍 1874/13213	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	27 24	City of Nelson City of Nelson	5 days 24 years	At the residence of Thomas Cawthron, St. Vincent Street, Nelson	2511		20 October 1874	Rev. Patrick Calder
63	26 October 1874	John Leslie Amelia Olympia Stafford	John Leslie Amelia Olympia Stafford 💍 1874/13210	Bachelor Widow	Bank Agent	34 31	City of Nelson Motueka	2 years 5 years	At St. Thomas's Church, Motueka	2570		26 October 1874	Rev. Samuel Poole
64	28 October 1874	Francois Frontin-Rolet Helen Sloss	Francis Froutin Rolet Ellen Sloss 💍 1874/13867	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 27	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At St. Mary's Catholic Church, Nelson	3610		28 October 1874	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
65	2 November 1874	Alfred Jordan Catherine Hubbard	Alfred Jordan Catherine Hubbard 💍 1874/12484	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Dove Dale City of Nelson	8 years 14 years	At the residence of Henry Newport, Gardiner, Vanguard Street, Nelson	2263		2 November 1874	Rev. Thomas Buddle
66	3 November 1874	John Tanner Naomi Laney	"not solemnized by Dolamore"	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	30 30	City of Nelson City of Nelson	12 days 12 days	At the residence of Thomas Chittenden, Storeman, South Street, Nelson			3 November 1874	Rev. Decimus Dolamore
67	6 November 1874	Charles Greig Fanny Burns	Charles Greig Fanny Burns 💍 1874/13219	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	29 25	City of Nelson City of Nelson	19 years 25 years	At the residence of Fanny Burns, Widow, Washington Rd, Nelson	2573		6 November 1874	Rev. Patrick Calder
68	7 November 1874	William Goslin Catherine Armstrong	William Goslin Catherine Armstrong 💍 1874/13870 William Bell Josephine Armstrong 💍 1874/9430	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	38 27	City of Nelson City of Nelson	4 days 27 years	At the residence of the Rev. Antoine Marie Garin, Catholic Station, Nelson	2739		7 November 1874	Rev. Antoine Marie Garin
69	7 November 1874	John Edward Burnett Catherine Ball	John Edward Burnett Catherine Ball 💍 1874/12496	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 21	Nelson City Nelson City	4 months 21 years	At the Wesleyan Church, Hardy Street, Nelson	2267		7 November 1874	Rev. Thomas Buddle
70	9 November 1874	George William Graham Mary Ann Hodgkinson	George William Graham Mary Ann Hodgkinson 💍 1874/12478	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 22	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	2261		9 November 1874	Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
71	2 December 1874	William Rutherford Emma Louisa Kearns	William Rutherford Emma Louisa Kearns 💍 1874/13879	Bachelor Spinster	Waggoner NIL	26 21	Spring Grove Panyau, Waimea	20 years 21 years	At Holy Trinity Church, Richmond	2742		2 December 1874	Rev. Henry Rutherford
72	8 December 1874	Edward Hope Fanny Eliza Saxton	Edward Hope Fanny Eliza Saxton 💍 1874/13876	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman NIL	37 28	Stoke, Suburban South Stoke, Suburban South	3 years 3 years	At Holy Trinity Church, Richmond	2741		8 December 1874	Rev. Henry Rutherford
73	19 December 1874	John Griffiths Hannah Astle	John Griffiths Hannah Astle 💍 1874/12463	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer NIL	38 25	Collingwood Street, Nelson Haven Road, Nelson	11 months 25 years	At the residence of John Griffiths, Collingwood St, Nelson	2256		19 December 1874	Rev. Thomas Buddle
74	28 December 1874	Edwin Cresswell Mary Eleanor Holdaway	John Cresswell Mary Eleanor Holdaway 💍 1874/12472	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer NIL	22 19	Stoke, Suburban South Richmond	22 years 19 years	At the Wesleyan Chapel, Richmond	2259	William Holdaway, Father	28 December 1874	Rev. William Keall
75	30 December 1874	George Bell Sinclair Rebecca Lee Hodgson	George Bell Sinclair Rebecca Lee Hodgson 💍 1875/714	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor NIL	25 23	City of Nelson City of Nelson	25 years 23 years	At All Saints Church, Nelson	45/622

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 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).