Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 495

District of Nelson Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
151	7 April 1880	Jonathan Brough Annie Taylor	Jonathan Brough Annie Taylor 💍 1880/1381	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Nil	40 33	Hainwea Road Nelson Washington Valley Nelson	7 years 33 years	At the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	80/1009		7 April 1880	Robert Kinton, Registrar
152	19 April 1880	Richard Weston Dyson Mercy Ellen Johnson	Richard Weston Dyson Mercy Ellen Johnson 💍 1880/1375	Widower Spinster	Commercial Traveller Nil	51 27	Panama House Nelson Collingwood Street Nelson	2 years 20 years	Christchurch	80/1004		19 April 1880	Rev. Samuel Poole, Church of England
153	21 April 1880	Montague Mardon Ellis Mary Lurick	Montague Mardoc Ellis Mary Livick 💍 1880/1392	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Nil	34 24	Collingwood Street Nelson Milner Street Nelson	3 days 2 years	Residence of Jonathan Sheet, Nelson	80/		21 April 1880	Rev. Rainsford Bavin, Wesleyan Methodist
154	21 April 1880	John Liffscombe Annie Esther Cooper	John Lipscombe Annie Esther Cooper 💍 1880/1371	Bachelor Spinster	Malster Domestic Servant	23 22	Tasman Street Nelson Tasman Street Nelson	23 years 3 years	Residence of Joseph Day, Bridge Street, Nelson	80/1000		21 April 1880	Rev. John Beckenham, Congregational Independent
155	24 April 1880	Gilbert Hugh Hay Barclay Louisa Cordelia Jones	Gilbert Hugh Hay-Barclay Louisa Cordelia Jones 💍 1880/1376	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk Nil	25 24	Collingwood Street Nelson Collingwood Street Nelson	3 days 2 years	Christchurch	80/1005		24 April 1880	Rev. Charles Oliver Mules, Church of England
156	1 May 1880	John Newton Easdale Euphemia Clark	John Newton Easdale Euphemia Clark 💍 1880/493	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Nil	27 25	Bridge Street Nelson Collingwood Street Nelson	1 year 25 years	Residence of Nepham Clark, Lately	80/3561		1 May 1880	Rev. Patrick Calder, Presbyterian Church of N.Z
157	1 May 1880	Joseph Edward Bartlett Martha Elizabeth Geffard	Joseph Edward Bartlett Martha Elizabeth Gifford 💍 1880/1384	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	22 22	Appleby Waimea East Appleby Waimea East	13 years 22 years	St Albans Church, Appleby	80/1012		1 May 1880	Rev. Arthur Henry Sedgwick, Church of England
158	11 May 1880	William Jellyman Elizabeth Ann Ching	William Jellyman Elizabeth Ann Ching 💍 1880/1374	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	24 18	Stoke Suburban South Stoke Suburban South	6 days 18 years	Residence of Richard Ching, Farmer	80/1003	Richard Ching, Father	11 May 1880	Rev. William Rouse, Wesleyan Methodist
159	11 May 1880	Edward Edwards Eliza Jane Jackson	Edward Edwards Eliza Jane Jackson 💍 1880/1369	Bachelor Widow	Cab Driver Nil	30 31	Selwyn Place Nelson New Street Nelson	3 years 2 years	Residence of Eliza Jane Jackson, New Street Nelson	80/1008		11 May 1880	Rev. Rainsford Bavin, Wesleyan Methodist
160	17 May 1880	Henry John Huffell Jane Lockyer	Harry John Ruffell Jane Lockyer 💍 1880/1377	Bachelor Spinster	Cab Owner Nil	24 17	Bronte Street Nelson Bronte Street Nelson	10 Months 17 years	Christchurch	80/1006	William Lockyer, Father	17 May 1880	Rev. James Leighton, Church of England
161	20 May 1880	James Iskanders Georgianna Sophia Richmond	James Selanders Georgeanna Sophia Richmond 💍 1880/1378	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Nil	35 22	Mary Ann Street Nelson The Cliffs Nelson	1.5 years 22 years	Christchurch	80/1007		20 May 1880	Andrew Burn, Bishop of Nelson
162	26 May 1880	William Reice Eva Paine	William Reece Eva Raine 💍 1880/1380	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Nil	23 18	Collingwood Street Nelson Tasman Street Nelson	3 days 6 years	Christchurch	80/1008	Thomas Paine, Father	26 May 1880	Rev. James Leighton, Church of England, Bishop of Nelson

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).