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 423

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1875

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
51	1 July 1875	Junnicliffe Charles Hogan Emma	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	25 22	Manuka Street Nelson Vanguard Street Nelson	4 days 2 weeks	at the residence of Charles Cullen Vanguard St Nelson	75/2000		1 July 1875	Rev. Thomas Buddle
52	2 July 1875	Ray Herbert Steggles Elizabeth	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic Servant	28 24	Grove Street Nelson Hardy Street Nelson	2 years 2 years	at Christ Church Nelson	75/2062		2 July 1875	Rev. James Leighton
53	3 July 1875	Jones James Samuel Galland Emily Burfield	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Milliner	24 19	Waimea Street Nelson Vanguard Street Nelson	16 months 8 years	at the residence of Ann Burfield Galland Vanguard Street Nelson	75/1429	Declaration no person in NZ having authority to consent	3 July 1875	Ven. Archdeacon Thorpe
54	5 July 1875	August Carl Corlett Judith	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Dress maker	37 22	Beachville Nelson Beachville Nelson	2 years 8 months	at Christchurch Nelson	75/2013		5 July 1875	Rev. James Leighton
55	19 July 1875	Hadfield Richard Green Fanny Smith	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist NIL	24 20	Waimea Street Nelson Suburban South	17 years 10 years	at the Wesleyan Church Hardy Street Nelson	75/2001	Green Edward	19 July 1875	Rev. Thomas Buddle
56	12 August 1875	Shannon Ezekiel Buddle Amy Sophia	Bachelor Spinster	Draper NIL	28 21	Hardy Street Nelson Hardy Street Nelson	3 days 2 years	at the Wesleyan Church Hardy Street Nelson	75/2022		12 August 1875	Rev. Thomas Buddle
57	26 August 1875	Henderson Andrew Hammond Elizabeth	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer NIL	21 19	Suburban North Suburban North	6 months 5 years	at the Presbyterian Church Nelson	75/2033	Declaration no person in NZ having authority to consent	26 August 1875	Rev. Patrick Calder
58	4 September 1875	Moore Edward Burns Margaret	Bachelor Spinster	articled clerk NIL	24 26	Manuka Street Nelson Waimea Street Nelson	16 years 22 years	at the residence of John Mc Vicar Builder Nile Street West Nelson	75/2034		4 September 1875	Rev. Patrick Calder
59	10 September 1875	Hopley Charles Hamilton Ragan Mary	Bachelor Spinster	Miner NIL	37 30	Trafalgar Street Nelson Trafalgar Street Nelson	2 weeks 2 weeks	at Saint Marys Catholic Church Nelson	75/2049		10 September 1875	Rev. Antoine Marie Gorin
60	17 September 1875	Edwards John Taylor Mary Louisa	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel keeper Domestic Servant	32 22	Bridge Street Nelson Waimea Street Nelson	3 years 6 months	at the residence of Charles Cullen Vanguard Street Nelson	75/2004		17 September 1875	Rev. Thomas Buddle
61	17 September 1875	Infield John Atkinson Helen	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper NIL	22 24	Haven Road Nelson Haven Road Nelson	4 years 11 years	at All Saints Church Nelson	75/2085		17 September 1875	Rev. Richard Joshua Thorpe
62	20 September 1875	Kitching Archibald Mercer Sarah Ellen	Bachelor Spinster	Coach driver Domestic Servant	22 22	Trafalgar Street Nelson Appleby Waimea East	3 days 1 month	at the Wesleyan Church Hardy Street Nelson	75/2003		20 September 1875	Rev. Thomas Buddle
63	28 September 1875	Bartlett John Woolfender Eliza	Widower Widow	Farmer NIL	50 50	Appleby Waimea East Haven Road Nelson	8 years 6 weeks	at the residence of William Twist Livery stable keeper Trafalgar Square Nelson	75/2056		28 September 1875	Rev. Richard Joshua Thorpe

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).