Intentions to Marry, 1881

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840393, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

Page 560

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1881

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
57	24 August 1881	Henry Wear Holdaway Jane Edwards	Henry Oscar Holdaway Jane Edwards 💍 1881/1875	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	30 23	Richmond, Nelson Wood, Nelson	30 years 20 years	Residence of Edwin Edwards, Nelson	81/1911	August 24	Revd. J. Berry
58	30 August 1881	Joseph Hanton Elizabeth Jane Fuller	Joseph Stanton Elizabeth Jane Fuller 💍 1881/1862	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer's Asst. Nil	21 22	Waimea West, Nelson Waimea West, Nelson	21 years 2 years	Residence of Joseph Hanton, Washington Valley, Nelson	81/1899	August 30	Revd. John Beckenham
59	30 August 1881	George Thomas Mary Parmenter	George Thomas Frances Mary Carmenter 💍 1881/1865 George Thomas Mary Carroll 💍 1881/1772	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Nil	22 25	Bridge Street, Nelson Bridge Street, Nelson	3 days 3 days	Imprigate and Independent Church, Nelson	81/1902	August 30	Revd. William Mahoney
60	8 September 1881	William Vosper Margaret Morrison	William Vosper Margaret Morrison 💍 1881/87 William Lawson Mary Morrison 💍 1881/2866	Bachelor Spinster	Servant Servant	22 22	Trafalgar Street, Nelson Manuka Street, Nelson	3 years 4 years	St Mary's Catholic Church, Nelson	81/1887	Sept 8	Revd. James Leighton
61	13 September 1881	Edward Webley Grace Janet Lockerbie	Edward Webley Grace Janet Lockerbie 💍 1881/1883	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dress maker	24 22	Alton Street, Nelson New Street, Nelson	20 years 20 years	Residence of Mr Lockerbie, Nelson	81/1896	Sept 13	Revd. Patrick Calder
62	14 September 1881	Robert Burns Mary O'Neill	Robert Burns Mary O'Neill 💍 1881/1882	Bachelor Spinster	Hair Dresser Servant	41 22	Bridge Street, Nelson The Port, Nelson	12 years 38 years	Residence of Mr. Burns, Wellington, The Port, Nelson	81/1895	Sept 14	Revd. Patrick Calder
63	19 September 1881	Edward Charles Young Mary Ryan	Edward Charles Young Mary Ryan 💍 1881/1864	Bachelor Spinster	Newspaper Manager Nil	34 24	Trafalgar Street, Nelson Nelson	1 day 24 years	St Mary's Catholic Church, Nelson	81/1901	Sept 19	Revd. William Mahoney
64	20 September 1881	Henry Cook Wilkinson Grace Shore	Henry Cook Wilkinson Grace Shore 💍 1881/1896	Bachelor Widow	Miner Nil	49 39	Grove Street, Nelson Grove Street, Nelson	4 days 20 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	81/1915	Sept 20	Robert Kuston

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).