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 371

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
131	22 May 1880	Frederick Jones Mary Ann Parker	Frederick Jones Mary Ann Parker 💍 1880/2045	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	26 18	Wellington Taita	6 months 2 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	80/1617	22 May 1880	H. Clapcott
132	25 May 1880	Henry Felton Margaret Ann White	Henry Falloon Margaret McArthur White 💍 1880/2220	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 23	Wellington Wellington	1 week 3 years	Norwood Church Karori	80/1629	25 May 1880	Rev. C. J. Ogg
133	29 May 1880	John Watson Eleanor Force	John Watson Eleanor Ford 💍 1880/2228 John Watson Anne Elizabeth Hight 💍 1880/233	Bachelor Widow	Printer	65 48	Wellington Wellington	3 years 9 years	Registrars Office	80/1619	29 May 1880	H. Clapcott
134	June 1880	Thomas Higginson Mary Jane Cewe	Thomas Higginson Mary Jane Cave 💍 1880/2217	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 21	Wellington Featherston	3 months 7 years	Wellington	80/1618	June 1880	H. Clapcott
135	3 June 1880	Thomas Davies Susanna Eliza Borris	Thomas Davies Susanna Eliza Bovis 💍 1880/2257	Bachelor Spinster	Oyster Dealer	26 30	Wellington Wellington	7 years 6 years	House of [UNCLEAR] J.	80/1593	3 June 1880	Rev. H. B. Redstone
136	7 June 1880	Alfred Thomas Berry Louisa Cutler	Alfred Thomas Berry Louisa Cutler 💍 1880/2235	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	22 19	Wellington Newtown	4 years 3 years	Registrars Office	80/1620	7 June 1880	J. M. Adams, Depy
137	9 June 1880	Louis Chemis Annie Dow	Louis Chemis Annie Dowd 💍 1880/2246	Bachelor Spinster	Ronman	26 21	Kaiwarra Wellington	2 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church Cathedral	80/1583	9 June 1880	Rev. J. W. Namara
138	June 1880	Alfred Smith Leo Emma Rebecca Plimmer	Alfred Smith Leo Armstrong Emma Rebecca Putnam 💍 1880/2909	Bachelor Spinster	Clothier	21 16	Wellington Wellington	18 months 4 years	St Peters Church		June 1880	Rev. Octavius [UNCLEAR] Armstrong
139	10 June 1880	Robert Reid Hutcheson Elizabeth Gillespie	Robert Reid Hutcheson Elizabeth Gillerpil 💍 1880/2236	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	26 19	Wogel Town Wellington	3 months 3 days	Registrars Office	80/1621	12 June 1880	J. M. Adams, Depy
140	14 June 1880	Israel Boock Lily Levy	Israel Boock Lilly Levy 💍 1880/2241	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	26 22	Wellington Wellington	2 years 1 year	The Synagogue	80/1626	23 June 1880	Rev. H. Van Staveren
141	17 June 1880	George Drury Jeannie Mary Bevens	George Drury Jeanny Mary Burns 💍 1880/2221	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	29 24	Wellington Wellington	3 months 5 weeks	House of Geo. Drury	80/1630	17 June 1880	Rev. B. J. Ogg
142	18 June 1880	Charles Samuel Jacob Frances Hanering	Charles Samuel Jacob Frances McAnerin 💍 1880/2242	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	31 25	Wellington Wellington	9 years 9 years	House of [UNCLEAR] Scott	80/1571	18 June 1880	Rev. James Paterson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).