Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 511

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1879

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
56	23 August 1879	James Taylor Amelia Lines	James Taylor Amelia Lines 💍 1879/1940	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Nil	22 23	Hope Waimea East Hope Waimea East	22 years 23 years	at the residence of Thomas Leves, farmer, Hope, Waimea East	79/1914		23 August 1879	Rev. William Rouse
57	23 August 1879	James William Hollyman Eliza Ann Cost	James William Hollyman Eliza Ann Cox 💍 1879/1935	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Lace Maker	20 21	Nile Street, Nelson Waimea Road, Nelson	1 year 1 year	at the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	79/1967	James Hollyman, father	23 August 1879	Robert Kirton, Registrar
58	4 September 1879	Henry Pilkington Sarah Simmonds	Henry Percival Pilkington Sarah Simmonds 💍 1879/2676	Bachelor Widow	Miner Hotel Keeper	44 46	Haven Road, Nelson Haven Road, Nelson	3 months 2 years	at the residence of Henry Lloyd, Carter, Bridge Street, Nelson	79/3055		4 September 1879	Rev. Alexander John Hamilton
59	8 September 1879	John Burke Anne Maher	John Burke Anne Maher 💍 1879/1942	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	23 22	Hardy Street, Nelson Hardy Street, Nelson	2 years 1 1/2 years	St. Mary's Catholic Church, Nelson	79/1973		8 September 1879	Rev. William Mahoney
60	13 September 1879	Alfred Horace Eustace Rawlins Angelina Lovell	Alfred Horace Eustace Rawland Bliss Angelina Lovell 💍 1879/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Nil	37 27	Waimea Street, Nelson Wakefield Quay, Nelson	4 days 6 weeks	at the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	79/1968		13 September 1879	Robt. Kirton, Registrar
61	20 September 1879	Henry Samuel Burkett Louisa Henrietta Sophia Lange	Henry Samuel Berkett Louise Henriethe Sophia Lange 💍 1879/3109	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	27 22	Hope Waimea East Hope Waimea East	2 1/2 years 6 months	Lutheran Church, Ranzau	79/2667		20 September 1879	Rev. Christian Frederick Meyer
62	22 September 1879	Edward Sumner Fairey Martha Newman	Edward Skinner Fairey Martha Newman 💍 1879/1929	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper Nil	28 18	Richmond, Nelson Harley Street, Nelson	3 years 6 weeks	at the residence of Henry Huffleme, Brewer, Harley Street, Nelson	79/1904	Eliza Newman, mother	22 September 1879	Rev. John Beckenham
63	29 September 1879	Thomas Jaffray Harriet Stratford	Thomas Jaffray Harriet Stratford 💍 1879/2681	Bachelor Spinster	Boiler Maker General Servant	27 22	Waimea Street, Nelson Waimea Street, Nelson	8 months 6 months	at the residence of George Watts, Painter, Waimea Street, Nelson	79/3060		29 September 1879	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 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).