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 370

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
119	7 May 1880	William Le Cren Mary Ellen Plant	William Le Cren Mary Ellen Plante 💍 1880/2043	Widower Widow	Accountant	46 29	Wellington	7 years 2 years	Registrars office	80/16/15		7 July 1880	H. Clapcott
120		Alfred Monk Emma Maria Hawkins	Alfred Monk Emma Maria Hawking 💍 1880/769	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 21	Wellington	4 years 4 years	Presbyterian Church Willis Street	80/1569	Redfern Parent		Rev. J. Paterson
121	8	Richard Murphy Agnes Laughlan	Richard Murphy Agnes Loughlan 💍 1880/2244	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	37 26	Wellington	5 years 6 months	Cathedral	80/1581		8	Rev. J. Nevin
122	10	Westley Brook Perceval Jessie Mary Johnston	Westley Brook Percival Jessie Mary Johnston 💍 1880/2243	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	26 26	Christchurch Wellington	4 years 4 years	R.C. Cathedral	80/1579		10	Rev. Father McNamara
123		Thomas Frederick Martin Jane Millward	Thomas Frederic Martin Jane Millward 💍 1880/2259	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	27 25	Christchurch Wellington	6 months 6 months	St. Peters Church	80/1574		10	Rev. Archdeacon Stock
124	12	John Bross Sarah Wilkinson	John Cross Sarah Wilkinson 💍 1880/2030	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	35 20	Wellington	3 days 5 months	St. Pauls Cathedral	80/1603	Redfern B.W. Narvey	12	Rev. R.W. Narvey
125		John Gallagher Maggie Nogan	John Gallagher Maggie Hogan 💍 1880/2047	Bachelor Spinster	Turnkey in Gaol	30 25		4 years 4 years	R.C. Church of St Mary of the Angels	80/1594			Rev. P. Kerrigan
126	14	Mathew Todd Sarah Elizabeth Grant	Matthew Todd Sarah Elizabeth Graves 💍 1880/2251	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	23 18	Karori	5 years 5 Years	English Church Karori	80/1588		14	Rev. W. Ballachey
127		Charles William Floyd Catherine Armstrong	Charles William Floyd Catherine Armstrong 💍 1880/2245	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 25	Petone	2 years 3 years	R.C. Cathedral	80/1582			Rev. J. Che Nevin
128	19	Arthur Wilton Caroline Nicholls	Arthur Wilton Caroline Nicholls 💍 1880/2044	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 21	Wellington	4 years 3 weeks	Registrars Office Wellington	80/1616		19	H.B. Lapery
129	20	James Park Frances Olive Rogers	James Park Francis Olive Rogers 💍 1880/2219	Bachelor Spinster	Resident Keeper Govt. Museum	22 20	The Museum Wellington	4 years 4 years		80/1628		22	C. Ogg
130	21	George Smith Adelaide Vance	George Smith Adelaide Vance 💍 1880/1915	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 23	S.S. Rimonow Ghuznee Street	1 year 1 year	Scotch Church Willis Street	80/1570		21	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 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).