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 311

District of Wanganui Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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

2 January 1880

James Charles Money
Winifred Hutton

James Charles Morey
Winifred Nathan
💍 1880/3150

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

23
26

Wanganui
Wanganui

3 yrs
6 yrs

Residence of Mrs Henry Hutton, Glasgow St, Wanganui

80/134

2 January 1880

Rev. T. L. Tudor

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Charles Money	Winifred Hutton
BDM Match (84%)	James Charles Morey	Winifred Nathan
	💍 1880/3150
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	3 yrs	6 yrs
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Henry Hutton, Glasgow St, Wanganui
Folio	80/134
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. L. Tudor

7 January 1880

William Kenorly
Ann Carey

William Kenoly
Ann Carly
💍 1880/3136

Bachelor
Widow

Upholsterer

40
41

Wanganui
do

14 yrs.
4 yrs.

In the office of the Registrar of marriages, Wanganui

80/144

7 January 1880

G. W. Woon

No	2
Date of Notice	7 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Kenorly	Ann Carey
BDM Match (91%)	William Kenoly	Ann Carly
	💍 1880/3136
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	40	41
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	14 yrs.	4 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of marriages, Wanganui
Folio	80/144
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1880
Officiating Minister	G. W. Woon

12 January 1880

Thos Gurnly Philpot
Sarah Ann Wilford

Thomas Gurrey Philpot
Sarah Ann Woolford
💍 1880/3153

Bachelor
Widow

Barrister

29
27

Wanganui
do

6 yrs.
4 yrs.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui

80/140

12 January 1880

Rev. T. L. Tudor

No	3
Date of Notice	12 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thos Gurnly Philpot	Sarah Ann Wilford
BDM Match (85%)	Thomas Gurrey Philpot	Sarah Ann Woolford
	💍 1880/3153
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Barrister
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	6 yrs.	4 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui
Folio	80/140
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. L. Tudor

17 January 1880

Thomas Peachey
Hannah Hussey

Thomas Peachey
Hannah Hussey
💍 1880/3135

Widower
Widow

Carpenter

35
29

Wanganui
do

6 yrs.
22 yrs.

In the Wesleyan Parsonage, Wanganui

80/146

17 January 1880

S. J. Moore

No	4
Date of Notice	17 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Peachey	Hannah Hussey
	💍 1880/3135
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Carpenter
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	6 yrs.	22 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the Wesleyan Parsonage, Wanganui
Folio	80/146
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1880
Officiating Minister	S. J. Moore

19 January 1880

Michael Foley
Eliza Burns

Michael Foley
Elizabeth Burns
💍 1880/3155

Bachelor
Spinster

Groom

28
21

Wanganui
do

3 yrs.
18 mos

In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui

80/139

19 January 1880

Rev. C. A. Ward

No	5
Date of Notice	19 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Foley	Eliza Burns
BDM Match (87%)	Michael Foley	Elizabeth Burns
	💍 1880/3155
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Groom
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	3 yrs.	18 mos
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui
Folio	80/139
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. A. Ward

30 January 1880

Walter James Pull
Sarah Ann Wall

Walter James Pull
Jane Anne Wall
💍 1880/3151

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor

22
21

Wanganui
do

12 mos
12 yrs.

In the residence of Walter James Pull, Wilson St, Wanganui

80/135

30 January 1880

Rev. W. Lee

No	6
Date of Notice	30 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter James Pull	Sarah Ann Wall
BDM Match (82%)	Walter James Pull	Jane Anne Wall
	💍 1880/3151
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	12 mos	12 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the residence of Walter James Pull, Wilson St, Wanganui
Folio	80/135
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Lee

2 February 1880

John Bowler
Bridget Rigby

John Bowler
Bridget Kirby
💍 1880/3132

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
23

Wanganui
do

3 yrs.
2 yrs.

In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui

80/140

2 February 1880

Rev. C. H. Kirk

No	7
Date of Notice	2 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bowler	Bridget Rigby
BDM Match (92%)	John Bowler	Bridget Kirby
	💍 1880/3132
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	3 yrs.	2 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui
Folio	80/140
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Kirk

3 February 1880

William Barnes
Ellen Bonar

William Barnes
Ellen Booker
💍 1880/3134

Bachelor
Spinster

Horsemen

22
17

Wanganui
do

18 mos
6 yrs.

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui

80/144

James Bonar, father

3 February 1880

G. W. Woon

No	8
Date of Notice	3 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Barnes	Ellen Bonar
BDM Match (88%)	William Barnes	Ellen Booker
	💍 1880/3134
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Horsemen
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	18 mos	6 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui
Folio	80/144
Consent	James Bonar, father
Date of Certificate	3 February 1880
Officiating Minister	G. W. Woon

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 1908. 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).