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 357

District of Wellington 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

21 January 1880

Jas Lewis Hall
Jessie Adams

James Lewis Hall
Jessie Adams
💍 1880/3162

Widower
Spinster

Traveller

33
24

Wellington

5 days
4 days

Registrar's Office

80/170

21 January 1880

Registrar

No	17
Date of Notice	21 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jas Lewis Hall	Jessie Adams
BDM Match (94%)	James Lewis Hall	Jessie Adams
	💍 1880/3162
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/170
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

21 January 1880

Christopher [UNCLEAR]
Hannah [UNCLEAR] Ipmo

Bach
Spin

Freeman

31
30

14 mos
2 mos

Registrar's Office

80/141

21 January 1880

Registrar

No	18
Date of Notice	21 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christopher [UNCLEAR]	Hannah [UNCLEAR] Ipmo
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Freeman
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence	14 mos	2 mos
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/141
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

21 January 1880

Hugh Marriner
Alice Lydia Nightingale

Hugh Marriner
Alice Lydia Nightingale
💍 1880/626

Bach
Spin

Surgeon

31
31

Palmerston
Wellington

8 mos
3 days

St Peter's Church

80/209

21 January 1880

Arch [UNCLEAR]

No	19
Date of Notice	21 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Marriner	Alice Lydia Nightingale
	💍 1880/626
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Surgeon
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Palmerston	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 mos	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church
Folio	80/209
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Arch [UNCLEAR]

23 January 1880

Jno Fred Young
Mary Ann Mudgway

John Frederick Young
Mary Ann Mudgway
💍 1880/3165

Bach
Spin

Labourer

24
23

Lower Hutt
Petone

4 yrs
4 yrs

Registrar's Office

80/173

23 January 1880

Registrar

No	20
Date of Notice	23 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jno Fred Young	Mary Ann Mudgway
BDM Match (80%)	John Frederick Young	Mary Ann Mudgway
	💍 1880/3165
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Petone
Length of Residence	4 yrs	4 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/173
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

23 January 1880

David Jas Duff
Eliza E Mather

David James Duff
Elizabeth Eleanor Nation
💍 1880/3170

Bach
Spin

Draper

20
23

Wellington

18 mos
4 yrs

Registrar's Office

80/144

[UNCLEAR] Brother

29 January 1880

Registrar

No	21
Date of Notice	23 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Jas Duff	Eliza E Mather
BDM Match (65%)	David James Duff	Elizabeth Eleanor Nation
	💍 1880/3170
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Draper
Age	20	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 mos	4 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/144
Consent	[UNCLEAR] Brother
Date of Certificate	29 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

23 January 1880

Joseph Hallett
Edith E Neeksby

Joseph Hallett
Edith Elizabeth Whebby
💍 1880/3164

Bach
Spin

Sheep Farmer

29
26

do
do

5 days
4 yrs

Registrar's Office

80/142

23 January 1880

Registrar

No	22
Date of Notice	23 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Hallett	Edith E Neeksby
BDM Match (73%)	Joseph Hallett	Edith Elizabeth Whebby
	💍 1880/3164
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	5 days	4 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/142
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

24 January 1880

Henry A Simpkins
Sarah E Randell

Bach
Spin

Bookseller

25
21

do
do

3 days
4 yrs

St Paul's

80/218

24 January 1880

Rev B H Harvey

No	23
Date of Notice	24 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry A Simpkins	Sarah E Randell
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Bookseller
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	do	do
Length of Residence	3 days	4 yrs
Marriage Place	St Paul's
Folio	80/218
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev B H Harvey

26 January 1880

George Towersley
Elizabeth Lane

George Towersey
Elizabeth Lane
💍 1880/1670

Bach
Spin

Baker

24
29

4 yrs
2 whs

House of Mrs Manley

80/168

26 January 1880

Rev J Paterson

No	24
Date of Notice	26 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Towersley	Elizabeth Lane
BDM Match (97%)	George Towersey	Elizabeth Lane
	💍 1880/1670
Condition	Bach	Spin
Profession	Baker
Age	24	29
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	4 yrs	2 whs
Marriage Place	House of Mrs Manley
Folio	80/168
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1880
Officiating Minister	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 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).