Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 419

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1875

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	2 January 1875	Haselden William Rewel Lane Matilda Blanche		Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor NIL	25 19	Nelson City Nelson City	3 days 3 days	At the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	75/431	Declaration no person having authority	2 January 1875	The Registrar of marriages Nelson
2	4 January 1875	Thomas Russ Alice Horn	Thomas Russ Alice Horn 💍 1875/3056	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer NIL	26 20	Waimea West Waimea East	20 years 20 years	At St Albans Church, Appleby	75/230	James Poppleton Horn, Father	4 January 1875	Revd. Charles Moon
3	8 January 1875	McDonald Alexander Corlett Catherine		Bachelor Spinster	Miner NIL	35 21	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 months	At Christ Church	75/1317		8 January 1875	Revd. James Leighton
4	11 January 1875	Jackson Jabez Ambrose Allen Sarah		Widower Spinster	Turner NIL	40 35	City of Nelson City of Nelson	32 years 16 years	At the residence of Walter Fieldes, Cambria St. Nelson	75/64		11 January 1875	Revd. Decimus Dolamore
5	12 January 1875	Turner Thomas Berry Eliza		Bachelor Spinster	Carman NIL	22 21	Nelson City Suburban North	2 years 9 years	At the residence of William Berry, Nelson	75/262		12 January 1875	Revd. William Keall
6	16 January 1875	Bright Robert Primmer Martha Ann		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher NIL	26 20	Collingwood Nelson Richmond Waimea East	26 years 20 years	At the residence of Ann Primmer, widow Richmond	75/263	Primmer Ann, mother	16 January 1875	Revd. William Keall
7	25 January 1875	Nippert Charles Gottfried Schroder Mina Josephina Johanna Christina Anton Maria		Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright NIL	29 22	Toi Toi Valley Nelson Ranzau Waimea East	18 months 22 years	At the Lutheran Church	75/85		25 January 1875	Revd. Christian Friedrich Meyer
8	27 January 1875	Rose John Frederick Harvey Rhoda Ann		Bachelor Spinster	Saw-miller NIL	24 19	City of Nelson City of Nelson	3 days 3 days	At the residence of Benjamin Allen, Grovestreet Nelson	75/68	Harvey George, Father	27 January 1875	Revd. Decimus Dolamore
9	27 January 1875	William Edmund Russ Jane Kerr	William Edmund Russ Jane Kerr 💍 1875/3159	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer NIL	24 22	Waimea West Waimea West	20 years 22 years	At the residence of John Kerr farmer, Waimea West	75/610		27 January 1875	Revd. Charles Moon
10	29 January 1875	Marten Benjamin William Rogers Gertrude Frances		Bachelor Spinster	Wesleyan Minister NIL	28 22	Washington Road Nelson Washington Road Nelson	3 days 2 weeks	At the Wesleyan Church Nelson	75/264		29 January 1875	Revd. William Keall
11	3 February 1875	Sheat John Redwood Ann		Widower Widow	Farmer NIL	54 54	Richmond Waimea East Waimea West	27 years 7 years	Richmond	75/1611		3 February 1875	Revd. Richd. Joshua Thorpe
12	9 February 1875	Bates George Fenwick Blick Ellen		Bachelor Spinster	Settler Domestic Servant	26 18	Milton Street Nelson Milton Street Nelson	1 year 18 years	At the residence of said George Fenwick Bates, Milton Street Nelson	75/260	Blick Alfred, Father	9 February 1875	Revd. Edward Thomas
13	19 February 1875	Jackson Morris Edward Williams Emma		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor NIL	21 19	Harper Street Nelson Washington Road Nelson	15 years 2 weeks	At the residence of James Jackson, Tailor, Harper Street Nelson	75/259	Williams William, Father	19 February 1875	Revd. Edward Thomas
14	24 February 1875	Moorhouse James Moorhouse Alice		Bachelor Spinster	Dairy Keeper NIL	45 26	Brouti Street Nelson Brouti Street Nelson	14 years 26 years	At the residence of Alice Moorhouse, Brouti Street Nelson	75/441		24 February 1875	Revd. Thomas Buddle
15	1 March 1875	Judges James Wood Jane Maria		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer NIL	25 22	Waimea Road Nelson Waimea Road Nelson	1 week 6 months	At the Wesleyan Parsonage, Hardy Street Nelson	75/749		1 March 1875	Revd. Thomas Buddle
16	11 March 1875	Flin Frederick Henry Jessie		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner NIL	23 20	on board P.S. Lyttelton Waimea Street Nelson	3 months 3 months	At Christ Church	75/1318	Henry Bessie, mother	11 March 1875	Revd. James Leighton
17	13 March 1875	Loughey Nathaniel Prideaux Kate		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	31 28	Bridge Street Nelson Waimea Street Nelson	4 days 4 days	At the Wesleyan Church, Hardy Street Nelson	75/443		13 March 1875	Revd. Thomas Buddle
18	15 March 1875	Jackson Edward Askew Joanna		Bachelor Spinster	Merchant NIL	24 22	Alton Street Nelson Nile Street East Nelson	1 week 5 years	At Christ Church	75/1319		15 March 1875	Revd. James Leighton
19	17 March 1875	Webby Alfred Anstice Ellen		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer NIL	22 20	Waimea East Hardy Street Nelson	22 years 18 years	At Holy Trinity Church	75/162	Anstice John Smook, Father	17 March 1875	Revd. Richd. Joshua Tharpe

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).