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 384

District of Wellington Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
227	14 October 1880	George Galloway Amelia Prudence Helen Carow	George Galloway Amelia Prudence Hellen 💍 1880/2819	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 16	Pahanenui Pahanenui	4 years 4 years	House of Mr Carow	80/1241	Louisa Carow, Mother	14 October 1880	Rev. James McWilliam
228	15 October 1880	William James Price Ellen Millow		Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	26 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr Sponsor	80/1248		15 October 1880	Rev. W. J. Williams
229	16 October 1880	Joseph Dixon Elizabeth Kate Redward	Joseph Dixon Elizabeth Kate Redward 💍 1880/2823	Bachelor Spinster	Aerated Water Maker	23 19		3 days 4 years	St. Peters Church	80/1245	James Redward, Father	16 October 1880	Rev. Archdeacon Stock
230	16 October 1880	Thomas George Guppy Lydia Ann Hulbert	Thomas George Gregory Weight Lydia Ann Hulbert 💍 1880/131	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 17		4 years 4 years	Residence of Mrs Hulbert	80/1242	John Burgess Hulbert, Father	16 October 1880	Rev. William Kirk
231	16 October 1880	John Houseberry Adams Jemima Weehman	John Moreberry Adams Jemima Weetman 💍 1880/2804	Bachelor Widow	Civil Servant	31 28		4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	80/1247		16 October 1880	H. Clapcott
232	18 October 1880	William Barclay Hart Elizabeth Hannah Buchanan	William Barclay Heath Elizabeth Hannah Buchanan 💍 1880/2923	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	37 21		1 Week 3 days	St. Pauls	80/1250/4		18 October 1880	Ven. Archdeacon Richard Johnson Thorpe
233	18 October 1880	Samuel Victor Leach Charlotte Barnes	Samuel Vitson Murch Charlotte Barnes 💍 1880/123	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 21		4 years 4 years	Rev. N.B. Readmes	80/12492		18 October 1880	Rev. H.B. Readmes
234	19 October 1880	William Emil Wigg Agnes Page	William Emil Wiggery Sandstrom Agnes Page 💍 1880/2825	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 19	Karori Karori	7 years 4 years	St. Peters Church	80/12476	Henry Page, Father	19 October 1880	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
235	25 October 1880	Charles Ward Emeline Thompson	Charles Ward Emeline Thompson 💍 1880/2820	Bachelor Spinster	Beamsman	30 21	Wellington Wellington	18 months 4 months	House of Mr McLeaon	80/12472		25 October 1880	Rev. James G. Paterson
236	26 October 1880	John Singleton Eliza Harriet Turner	John Singleton Eliza Harriet Turner 💍 1880/2805	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	25 18		4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	80/1253	James Turner, Father	26 October 1880	H. Clapcott
237	8 November 1880	Frank William Side Alice Mary Haddon	Frank William Side Alice Mary Maddison 💍 1880/142	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 20		18 months 18 months	House of Mr Leslie	80/12488	No person to give consent	8 November 1880	Rev. John Moir
238	26 October 1880	Michael Donovan Julia Wenn	Michael Donovan Julia Wenn 💍 1880/2932	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	26 30		4 years 4 years	Roman Catheral	80/12571		26 October 1880	Rev. Father McNamara

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).