Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 456

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar Rob Pickett

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
63	3 September 1877	Frank James Jane mary Skilton	Frank James Jane Mary Skilton 💍 1877/1788	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 22	Beachville Nelson Milton Sheet Nelson	3 days 2 years	at the residence of Charlotte Johnson Beachville Nelson	77/1120		3 September 1877	Rev. Juo: S. Harper
64	3 September 1877	John Orr Mary Manson	John Orr Mary Manson 💍 1877/2189	Widower Widow	Restaurant-Huper	43 30	Collingwood Sheet Nelson Collingwood Street Nelson	4 days 4 days	at the Presbyterian Church Nelson	77/2132		3 September 1877	Rev. Patrick Calder
65	7 September 1877	Philip Smith Cross Martha Berkett	Phillip Smith Cross Martha Berkett 💍 1877/1755	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Governess	22 18	Haven road. Nelson Hope Wainnea East	22 years 18 years	at the residence of William Berkett Hope Waimea East	77/1110	Berkett William father	7 September 1877	Rev. John Beckenham
66	18 September 1877	Bernhardt Henry Moller Dorothea Louisa Biggelhow	Bernhardt Henry Moller Dorothea Louisa Liggelkow 💍 1877/1759	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer Dressmaker	26 21	Bridge Sheet Nelson Bridge Sheet Nelson	10 years 21 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	77/1114		18 September 1877	The Registrar of marriages Nelson
67	19 September 1877	William morrison M. Farlane agnes Franklin	William Morrison MacFarlane Agnes Franklin 💍 1877/3088	Widower Spinster	Engineer	35 19	Haven road Nelson Bridge Sheet Nelson	18 months 19 years	at the residence of Mary Ann Franklin Bridge sheet Nelson	77/312	Franklin Mary ann mother.	19 September 1877	Rev A. I. Hamilton
68	19 September 1877	William John Hunter Emma Jennings	William John Hunter Emma Jennings 💍 1877/1767	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 27	Waimea Sheet Nelson Collingwood Sheet. Nelson	1 week 27 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	77/1118		19 September 1877	The Registrar of marriages Nelson
69	19 September 1877	alfred Charles Parmenter mary agnes M.Cauley		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Domestic Servant	21 22	Collingwood Sheete Nelson Collingwood Sheet Nelson	21 years 2 years	at the office of the Registrar of marriages Nelson	77/1121		19 September 1877	The Registrar of marriages Nelson
70	20 September 1877	George Evered Garrett Harriett McArtney	George Evens Garrett Harriett McArtney 💍 1877/1789	Bachelor Widow	Plumber Boardinghouse keeper	37 41	Collingwood Sheets Nelson Collingwood Sheete Nelson	12 years 18 years	at the residence of Harriett Me Artney CollingwoodSheet Nelson			20 September 1877	Rev George S. Harper
71	29 September 1877	William George Haybittle Robertina Burns	William George Haybittle Robertina Burns 💍 1877/2190	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Milliner	27 27	Bridge Street Nelson Collingwood Sheet Nelson	3 days 8 years	at the residence of Richard White CollingwoodSheet Nelson	77/2133		29 September 1877	Rev. Patrick Calder

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).