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 303

District of Patea Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
120	14 January 1880	Joseph Paterson Margaret Mackay	Joseph Paterson Margaret Mackay 💍 1880/3116	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	42 26	Kakaramea	9 years 18 months	Hy Williamsons Residence at Kakaramea	80/124		14 January 1880	James Torry Presbyterian minister
121	13 January 1880	Joseph Wilson Harriet Evaline McCartney	Joseph Wilson Harriet Evaline McArtney 💍 1880/3115 Joseph Wilson Martha Craig 💍 1880/1440	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper Dressmaker	34 21	Ketenarae	7 months since 23 Dec	Rev. J. Lonys Residence at Hawera	80/123		13 January 1880	James Torry Presbyterian minister
122	23 January 1880	Geo. Wm Lucas Martha Hicks	George William Lucas Martha Hicks 💍 1880/3119	Bachelor Spinster	Employed on Survey Staff none	29 years 17 years	Hawera	about 18 months about 18 months	Mrs Hicks Residence at Hawera	80/125	Margaret Hicks mother of Martha Hicks	23 January 1880	Alex Dasent curate Ch of England
123	26 January 1880	Alfred Thos Illston Emily Marchant	Alfred Thomas Illston Emily Marchant 💍 1880/3120	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	38 years 19 years	Whakanarea Woodville	4 to 5 yrs 2 months	John Marchant Residence at Patea	80/129	John Marchant father of Emily Marchant	26 January 1880	Alex Dasent curate ch of England
124	2 February 1880	Charles Barrow Catherine Hydd	Charles Barrow Catherine Kydd Proctor 💍 1880/3118	Bachelor Spinster	farmer none	30 years 32 yrs	Hawera	6 yrs 8 months	Mr Elbroys House at Ktitanitea	80/125		2 February 1880	James Torry Presbyterian minister
125	9 February 1880	George Dunton Susan Wilson	George Dunton Sarah Ann Wilson 💍 1880/3121	Bachelor Spinster	settler Domestic Servant	28 23	Manutahi	4 yrs 6 weeks	Registrars Office at Carlyle Patea	80/128		9 February 1880	Francis Long Registrar Carlyle
126	12 February 1880	John Haymann Mina Martha Stanley	John Haymann Mina Martha Stanley 💍 1880/3122	Bachelor Spinster	settler Barmaid	29 23	Hawera	2 years 7 Days	Registrars Office at Carlyle Patea	80/129		12 February 1880	Francis Long Registrar Carlyle
127	24 February 1880	Wm Geo Wheeler Elizabeth Jane Gardner	William George Wheeler Elizabeth Jane Gardner 💍 1880/3123	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	23 21 years	Waverley	12 months 3 months	Registrars office at Carlyle Patea	80/130		24 February 1880	Francis Long Registrar Carlyle

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).