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 361

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

154

25 February 1880

Richard Atkins
Hannah Harrison

Richard Atkins
Susannah Harrison
💍 1880/1050

Widower
Spinster

Clerk

42
23

Wellington

16 yrs
2 yrs

Registrar's Office

80/181

25 February 1880

Registrar

No	154
Date of Notice	25 February 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Atkins	Hannah Harrison
BDM Match (91%)	Richard Atkins	Susannah Harrison
	💍 1880/1050
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	42	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 yrs	2 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/181
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

155

1 March 1880

James Rowe
Margaret Thomas

James Rowe
Margaret Thomas
💍 1880/1068

Bachelor
Spinster

Farm Labourer
Servant

21
26

2 yrs

Registrar's Office

80/185

1 March 1880

Registrar

No	155
Date of Notice	1 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Rowe	Margaret Thomas
	💍 1880/1068
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Servant
Age	21	26
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	2 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/185
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

156

1 March 1880

Martin Johnston
Eliz Traveron

Martin Joseph Johnston
Elizabeth Praverron
💍 1880/1070

Bachelor
Spinster

Packman
Servant

25
22

9 yrs
2 yrs

Registrar's Office

80/188

3 March 1880

Registrar

No	156
Date of Notice	1 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Martin Johnston	Eliz Traveron
BDM Match (66%)	Martin Joseph Johnston	Elizabeth Praverron
	💍 1880/1070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Packman	Servant
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	9 yrs	2 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/188
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

157

1 March 1880

John Miller
Catherine Jenkins

John Miller
Catherine Jenkins
💍 1880/1069

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman

24
19

4 days
4 days

Registrar's Office

80/194

3 March 1880

Registrar

No	157
Date of Notice	1 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Miller	Catherine Jenkins
	💍 1880/1069
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/194
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

158

1 March 1880

Edward Pike
Ellen Mahoney

Edward John Hall
Ellen Mahoney
💍 1880/3181

Bachelor
Spinster

Bookbinder

23
21

10
3

House of Rev. D Dutton

80/206

2 March 1880

Rev. D. Dutton

No	158
Date of Notice	1 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Pike	Ellen Mahoney
BDM Match (72%)	Edward John Hall	Ellen Mahoney
	💍 1880/3181
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bookbinder
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	10	3
Marriage Place	House of Rev. D Dutton
Folio	80/206
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Dutton

159

3 March 1880

Stephen Froman
Jessie Anderson

Stephen Foreman
Jepie Anderson
💍 1880/3201

John Corkill
Jessie Anderson
💍 1880/1931

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

22
22

4 days
9 years

St Peter's Church

80/212

3 March 1880

Registrar

No	159
Date of Notice	3 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen Froman	Jessie Anderson
BDM Match (87%)	Stephen Foreman	Jepie Anderson
	💍 1880/3201
BDM Match (61%)	John Corkill	Jessie Anderson
	💍 1880/1931
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	4 days	9 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church
Folio	80/212
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Registrar

160

3 March 1880

Mathew James
Sarah Helen Buddle

Widower
Spinster

Painter

36
22

3 yrs
Life

House of Rev. J. Hinton

80/196

3 March 1880

Rev. J. Hinton

No	160
Date of Notice	3 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mathew James	Sarah Helen Buddle
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	36	22
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	3 yrs	Life
Marriage Place	House of Rev. J. Hinton
Folio	80/196
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Hinton

161

9 March 1880

Louis Fagan
Rosa Jacobson

Bachelor
Spinster

Sailor

24
17

3 yrs
4 yrs

Synagogue

81/222

14 March 1880

Van Staveren

No	161
Date of Notice	9 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Fagan	Rosa Jacobson
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sailor
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	do
Length of Residence	3 yrs	4 yrs
Marriage Place	Synagogue
Folio	81/222
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Van Staveren

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).