Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 550

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 September 1883

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
42	14 September 1883	Martin Christian Esther Cooper	Martin Christian Esther Cooper 💍 1883/1962	Widower Widow	Booth Maker Nil	46 44	Harley Street Nelson New Street Nelson	2 years 3 years	Congregational Church Nelson	83/2084		14 September 1883	Rev. John Beckenham Congregational Church
43	18 September 1883	James Frederick Shaw Jessie Blincoe	James Frederick Shaw Jessie Blincoe 💍 1883/1963	Bachelor Spinster	Rope Maker Servant	29 23	Maitai Valley Nelson Waimia Road Nelson	20 years 23 years	Residence of George Brooker, Washington Valley Nelson	83/2088		18 September 1883	Rev. Edward Charles Nightingale Church of England
44	19 September 1883	William Henry Albrough Sarah Jane Ruizett	William Henry Alborough Sarah Jane Kinzett 💍 1883/2940	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	26 22	Wakapuaka Nelson Wakapuaka Nelson	26 years 22 years	St Peters by the Strand Wakapuaka	83/2969		19 September 1883	Rev. Walter Herbert Kay Church of England
45	24 September 1883	Arthur Hermon Annie Jane Turner	Arthur Hermon Annie Jane Turner 💍 1883/3618	Bachelor Spinster	Minister Nil	24 20	Wakapuaka Nelson Wakapuaka Nelson	6 days 20 years	St Peters by the Strand Wakapuaka	83/2969	Henry Turner, father	24 September 1883	Rev. A. B. Baker Church of England
46	24 September 1883	John Samuel Garoth Mary Jane Williams	John Samuel Gawith Mary Jane Williams 💍 1883/1959	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Nil	32 20	Shelbourne Street Nelson Washington Terrace Nelson	6 months 12 years	Residence of Henry White, Washington Terrace Nelson	83/2084	Sarah Jane White, mother	24 September 1883	Rev. Patrick Calder Presbyterian Church

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 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).