Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 227

District of Wellington Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
98	4 September 1872	Robert Thomas Chatfield Amelia Frances Cains	Robert Thomas Chatfield Amelia Frances Cains 💍 1872/9284	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 17	Wellington Wellington	19 yrs 16 yrs	House of Thomas Spencer Hopper St.	72/1379	Sam. Murch, Father	16 October 1872	Rev. J. Buddle
105	1 October 1872	Thomas Spencer Emma March	Thomas Spencer Emma March 💍 1872/5750	Bachelor Spinster	Lighterman Dressmaker	35 33	Wellington Wellington	12 yrs 15 yrs	House of Rev. J. Moir	72/2226		5 October 1872	Rev. J. Moir
106	5 October 1872	James Shennen Elizabeth Ann Sededa born Nash	James Shannon Elizabeth Ann Sedcole 💍 1872/8246	Widower Widow	Lawyer Dressmaker	35 33	Wellington Wellington	12 yrs 15 yrs	House of Rev. J. Moir	72/2226		5 October 1872	Rev. J. Moir
107	7 October 1872	Benjamin Mudgway Maria Louisa Jennings	Benjamin Mudgway Maria Louisa Hemmings 💍 1872/8243	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Governess	25 28	Hutt Lower Hutt	2.5 yrs 3 yrs	St James Church Lower Hutt	72/2223		22 October 1872	Rev. J. Fancourt
108	9 October 1872	Henry Martin Sarah Ribbellet	Henry Martin Sarah Kibbeller Marshall 💍 1872/5753	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Sorter	21 17	Hutt Road Johnsonville	21 yrs 1.5 yrs	Wesleyan Chapel	72/1380	Edwd. Marshall, Father	24 October 1872	Rev. J. Buddle
109	11 October 1872	Michael Scanlon Ellen Kiely	Michael Scanlon Elizabeth Keily 💍 1872/8093	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	35 25	Wellington Wellington	3 dys 3 dys	Roman Catholic Cathedral	72/2175		11 October 1872	Rev. J.B. Petit Jean
110	12 October 1872	Andrew Frederick Nelson Rachel Jane Cunningham	Andres Frederick Nelson Rachel Jane Cunningham 💍 1872/8081	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Domestic Servant	32 19	Wellington Wellington	6 wks 9 wks	House of John Nelson Cuba Street	72/2171	no relation in NZ	12 October 1872	Rev. J. Paterson

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 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).