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 368

District of Wellington Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
95	15 April 1880	James Rowe Sarah Hewitt	James Rowe Sarah Hewitt 💍 1880/2032	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	26 21	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3	Registrar's office Wellington	80/1605		13 April 1880	H. Clapcott
96		John Dimes Esther Gilley	John Dimes Esther Gillie 💍 1880/2247	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	27 21		7 5	House of Rev. John elliot	80/1574			Rev. John elliot
97	17	Ernest Edward Eamond Annie Foulds	Ernest Edward Edmunds Annie Foulds 💍 1880/2250	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	34 27		1 week 1 month	House of Peter Button	80/1586		17	P. Button
98	19	Lewis Oughton Hannah Hogy	Lewis Oughton Hannah Hogg 💍 1880/2034	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	26 17		7 years 12 years	Registry office Wellington	80/1607		22	H. Clapcott
99	20	William Frederick Cole Mary Jane Wallen	William Fredrick McLeod Mary Jane Walden 💍 1880/2218 William Frederick Hubbard Mary Logan Wilson 💍 1880/971 William John Little Mary Jane Willows 💍 1880/2285	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	26 15		13 months 9 years	Home of the bride's parents	80/1627	Keven Hult	20	Rev. C. S. Ogg
100		Alexander McGregor Martha Mahilda Evenson	Alexander McGregor Martha Matilda Evanson 💍 1880/2260 Alexander McGregor Mary Jane Hunter 💍 1880/1926	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	29 29	Lower Hutt	9 years	Home of Rev. W. J. Williams	80/1575		20	Rev. W. J. Williams
101		William Frederick Cry Annie Helena Gingell	William Frederick Cox Annis Helena Gingell 💍 1880/2255	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 20	Wellington	6 years 11/2	St. Marks Church	80/1591		20	Rev. R. Coffey
102		James Montague Forsyth Jane Jessie Campbell Climie	James Montague Forsyth Jane Jessie Campbell 💍 1880/1912	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	26 24		9 years 9 years	House of Alex. Climie	80/1567			Rev. J. Paterson
103	23	William Robertson Jane Ashbridge	William Robertson June Ashbridge 💍 1880/2248	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 24		4 years 9 years	House of Mrs. McGrath	80/1585		23	Rev. John elliot
104		William Von Keisenberg Ada Charlelda Gooman		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23		4 months 9 years	St. Marks Church	80/1589		80	Rev. R. Coffey
105		John Hair Margaret Lyons	John Mair Margaret Lyons 💍 1880/1913 John Healey Bridget Lyons 💍 1880/2008	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	28 32		6 years 4 years	House of J. Hair	80/1568		80	Rev. J. Paterson
106	26	George Weston Selina Pike	George Weston Selina Pike 💍 1880/2035	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	31 17	Upper Hutt	1 year 9 years	Registrar office Wellington	80/1608		26	H. Clapcott

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).