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 313

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 June 1880

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

8 April 1880

John Anderson
Mary Way

John Anderson
Mary Day
💍 1880/1470

John Anderson
Minette Wardrop Venables
💍 1880/1659

Widower
Spinster

Minister

32
21

Wanganui
do

18 months
do

In the Office of the Registrar

80/898

8 April 1880

G. W. Woon, Registrar

No	15
Date of Notice	8 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Anderson	Mary Way
BDM Match (94%)	John Anderson	Mary Day
	💍 1880/1470
BDM Match (60%)	John Anderson	Minette Wardrop Venables
	💍 1880/1659
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Minister
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	18 months	do
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar
Folio	80/898
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1880
Officiating Minister	G. W. Woon, Registrar

19 April 1880

James Morrison
Eliza Bond

James Morrison
Eliza Bond
💍 1880/2267

Bachelor
Widow

Ropemaker

36
42

Wanganui
do

4 days
do

In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui

80/1/100

19 April 1880

Rev. James Treadwell, Presbyterian

No	16
Date of Notice	19 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Morrison	Eliza Bond
	💍 1880/2267
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Ropemaker
Age	36	42
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	4 days	do
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui
Folio	80/1/100
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Treadwell, Presbyterian

20 April 1880

Nepia Te Tauri
Kerehi Wi Parata

No matching marriage registration has been located

Bachelor
Spinster

18
21

Putiki
Putiki

18 years
6 months

In the Church of England, Putiki, Wanganui

Wiremu Te Tauri, father

20 April 1880

Rev. Artua Te Hana, Church of England

No	17
Date of Notice	20 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Nepia Te Tauri	Kerehi Wi Parata
	💍 No matching marriage registration has been located
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession
Age	18	21
Dwelling Place	Putiki	Putiki
Length of Residence	18 years	6 months
Marriage Place	In the Church of England, Putiki, Wanganui
Folio
Consent	Wiremu Te Tauri, father
Date of Certificate	20 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Artua Te Hana, Church of England

24 April 1880

Joseph Jones
Maria Wiley

Joseph Jones
Maria Wyley
💍 1880/1480

Josiah Jones
Maria Devenny
💍 1880/870

Widower
Spinster

Builder

60
22

Wanganui
do

6 months
do

At the Residence of G.R.

80/904

24 April 1880

Rev. William Lee, Wesleyan

No	18
Date of Notice	24 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Jones	Maria Wiley
BDM Match (95%)	Joseph Jones	Maria Wyley
	💍 1880/1480
BDM Match (72%)	Josiah Jones	Maria Devenny
	💍 1880/870
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	60	22
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	6 months	do
Marriage Place	At the Residence of G.R.
Folio	80/904
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Lee, Wesleyan

28 April 1880

James McKain
Agnes Rickup

James McKain
Agnes Pickup
💍 1880/1471

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
21

Wanganui
do

20 years
do

In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui

80/899

28 April 1880

G. W. Woon, Registrar

No	19
Date of Notice	28 April 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James McKain	Agnes Rickup
BDM Match (96%)	James McKain	Agnes Pickup
	💍 1880/1471
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	20 years	do
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui
Folio	80/899
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1880
Officiating Minister	G. W. Woon, Registrar

1 May 1880

Thomas Byrnes
Mary Leahy

Thomas Byrne
Mary Leahy
💍 1880/21

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

22
24

Wanganui
do

12 months
do

In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui

80/911

1 May 1880

Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

No	20
Date of Notice	1 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Byrnes	Mary Leahy
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Byrne	Mary Leahy
	💍 1880/21
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	22	24
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	12 months	do
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui
Folio	80/911
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

3 May 1880

William Johnston
Eliza Howard

William James Johnston
Eliza Howard
💍 1880/2088

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

20
21

Wanganui
do

9 months
do

In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui

80/913

William Johnston, father

3 May 1880

Rev. James Treadwell, Presbyterian

No	21
Date of Notice	3 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Johnston	Eliza Howard
BDM Match (86%)	William James Johnston	Eliza Howard
	💍 1880/2088
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	9 months	do
Marriage Place	In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui
Folio	80/913
Consent	William Johnston, father
Date of Certificate	3 May 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Treadwell, Presbyterian

3 May 1880

Arthur H. Seaton
Marion E. Grant

Arthur James Stuart Seaton
Marion Sargeant
💍 1880/1477

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher

25
22

Turakina
do

18 months
do

In St. John's Palmerston North

80/904

3 May 1880

Rev. F. L. Tudor, Church of England

No	22
Date of Notice	3 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur H. Seaton	Marion E. Grant
BDM Match (60%)	Arthur James Stuart Seaton	Marion Sargeant
	💍 1880/1477
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Turakina	do
Length of Residence	18 months	do
Marriage Place	In St. John's Palmerston North
Folio	80/904
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. L. Tudor, Church of England

4 May 1880

Charles Moore
Emily Smith Patterson

Charles Moore
Annie Emily Patterson
💍 1880/1472

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

22
16

Wanganui
do

6 months
do

Ed. L. Smith, Wilson St, Wanganui

1908

Ed. L. Smith, father

4 May 1880

G. W. Woon, Registrar

No	23
Date of Notice	4 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Moore	Emily Smith Patterson
BDM Match (81%)	Charles Moore	Annie Emily Patterson
	💍 1880/1472
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	22	16
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	6 months	do
Marriage Place	Ed. L. Smith, Wilson St, Wanganui
Folio	1908
Consent	Ed. L. Smith, father
Date of Certificate	4 May 1880
Officiating Minister	G. W. Woon, Registrar

7 May 1880

Thomas Jeffares
Hannah Smith

Thomas Jeffares
Hannah Smith
💍 1880/2072

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

70
19

Wanganui
do

14 days
do

In the Residence of Mr. Wilson, Wanganui

7 May 1880

Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

No	24
Date of Notice	7 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Jeffares	Hannah Smith
	💍 1880/2072
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	70	19
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	14 days	do
Marriage Place	In the Residence of Mr. Wilson, Wanganui
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 May 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

8 May 1880

Philip Lander Payne
Sarah Caradus

Philip Lambert Payne
Sarah Caradus
💍 1880/22

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Official

29
20.5

Wanganui
do

12 months
do

Campbell St, Wanganui

1913

Anastasia Caradus, mother

8 May 1880

Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

No	25
Date of Notice	8 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Philip Lander Payne	Sarah Caradus
BDM Match (93%)	Philip Lambert Payne	Sarah Caradus
	💍 1880/22
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Official
Age	29	20.5
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	do
Length of Residence	12 months	do
Marriage Place	Campbell St, Wanganui
Folio	1913
Consent	Anastasia Caradus, mother
Date of Certificate	8 May 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

11 May 1880

Henry Warner
Harriett Wall

Henry Warner
Harriet Wall
💍 1880/18

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
22

Brunswick Line
Wanganui

6 months
22 years

In the Residence of Mr. John Wall, Missionary Line, Wanganui

80/908

11 May 1880

Rev. Geo. [UNCLEAR], Wesleyan

No	26
Date of Notice	11 May 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Warner	Harriett Wall
BDM Match (96%)	Henry Warner	Harriet Wall
	💍 1880/18
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Brunswick Line	Wanganui
Length of Residence	6 months	22 years
Marriage Place	In the Residence of Mr. John Wall, Missionary Line, Wanganui
Folio	80/908
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 May 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. [UNCLEAR], Wesleyan

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 1903. 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).