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 315

District of Wanganui Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
36	2 July 1880	William Middleton Lizzie Campbell	William Middelton Lizzie Campbell 💍 1880/2289 William Mill Bethia Campbell 💍 1880/602	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	29 19	Wanganui do	12 yrs. do	In the Church of England, Wanganui	821/1708	Ellen Campbell, Mother	2 July 1880	Rev. T. L. Tudor
37	5 July 1880	Henry William Grough Mary Webb	Henry Whitson Gouger Mary Webb 💍 1880/2288 William Guy Sarah Webb 💍 1880/476	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	39 26	Wanganui Wanganui	15 yrs. 6 yrs.	In the Church of England Wanganui	820/1709		5 July 1880	Rev. T. R. Tudor
38	6 July 1880	Francis Wm Ford Emma Trant		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 22	do do.	2 yrs. do.	At the Registrar's Office Wanganui	820/1710		6 July 1880	S. W. Wood, Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui
39	28 July 1880	John William Horton Catherine Wallace	John William Hoskin Catharine Wallace 💍 1880/2306 William Taylor Catherine Wallace 💍 1880/301	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 18	Tutaenui Wallacetown	4 yrs. 10 yrs.	At the Residence of Mr J. Finn Tutaenui	821/1698		28 July 1880	Rev. James Treadwell, Presbyterian
40	28 July 1880	James Robinson Edith M. A. Bartleet	James Robinson Edith Bond Parkinson 💍 1880/2302	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Moulder	24 17	Wanganui do	2 yrs. 5 yrs.	At the Residence of J. B. Atkinson Esqr. Wanganui	820/1699		28 July 1880	Rev. Wm Bee, Wesleyan
41	5 August 1880	Andrew Tod Matilda Ann McLean	Andrew Tod Matilda Julia Dickens 💍 1880/2266	Bachelor Widow	Merchant	43 39	do do	21 yrs. 3 yrs.	At the Residence of John Nixon Esqr., Wanganui.	821/1700		5 August 1880	Rev. T. R. Tudor, Church of England
42	11 August 1880	William John Little Mary Jane Willson	William John Little Mary Jane Willows 💍 1880/2285	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 20	do do	6 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the Registrar's Office Wanganui	821/1701		11 August 1880	S. W. Wood, Registrar of Marriages
43	11 August 1880	Edmond Hy. Wood Sarah Annie Tuckey		Widower Spinster	Auctioneer	30 23	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs. 2 yrs.	At the Residence of Mr E. Wanger Wanganui	821/1699		11 August 1880	Rev. James Treadwell, Presbyterian
44	12 August 1880	Walter Wadey [UNCLEAR]		Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	24 29	do do	5 days 5 yrs.	In the Residence of Mr Davidson Wanganui	821/1695		12 August 1880	Rev. Wm. Bee, Wesleyan
45	28 August 1880	John Brunnen Sarah Mary Melody	John Brennan Sarah Mary Melody 💍 1880/2287	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 21	do do	2 yrs. 12 yrs.	Church Wanganui	821/1706		28 August 1880	Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic
46	30 August 1880	James Adamson Eliza King	James Adamson Eliza Oliver 💍 1880/2304	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 21	do do	22 yrs. 12 yrs.	At the Residence of Mr Kingston Wanganui	821/1707		30 August 1880	Rev. Wm Bee, Wesleyan
47	15 September 1880	John McEw Ann McLean	John McIvor Ann McLean 💍 1880/2286	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	36 20	do do	5 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	821/1708		15 September 1880	S. W. Wood, Registrar of Marriages

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).