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 385

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
239	1 November 1880	John Thomas Schiches Harriet Young	John Thomas Mitchell Harriet Young 💍 1880/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	30 32	Wellington Do	5 days 5 days	St. Peters Church	80/244		1 November 1880	Rev. Archdeacon Stock
240	1 November 1880	James George Harding Harriet Hichens	Thomas George Harding Hariet Kichens 💍 1880/125	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	27 26	Do Do	4 years 4 years	St. Marks Church	80/2494		1 November 1880	Rev. Richard Coffey
241	2 November 1880	Charles Dems Alice Jeeman	Charles Duns Alice Illman 💍 1880/460 Charles Dugan Alice Murray 💍 1880/232	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 27	Do Soughs Model Lodgings House, Shaddock Street	2 years 2 years	Mr. Hendleys Residence	80/3059		2 November 1880	Rev. Charles S. Ogg
242	3 November 1880	David Howard Eliza Green	David Howard Eliza Green 💍 1880/459	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	28 21	Do Do	5 years 6 years	Mr. Rowntrees Residence Arthur Street	80/3058		3 November 1880	Rev. Charles J. Ogg
243	4 November 1880	Frederick Asher Rose Mary Henne	Frederick Aisher Rose Mary McNenny 💍 1880/2929	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	22 18	Do Do	12 years 1 year	St. Pauls Church Thorndon	80/2508	No person to give consent	4 November 1880	Rev. B. W. Harvey
244	8 November 1880	William Rogers Elizabeth Kitchen	William Rogers Elizabeth Kitchen 💍 1880/774	Widower Spinster	Auctioneer	44 21	Do Wellington	5 months 4 days	Registrars Office Wellington	80/2452		8 November 1880	J. G. Holdsworth Reg.
245	11 November 1880	George Willis Annie Caldwell	George Willis Annie Caldwell 💍 1880/126	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	50 29	Do Do	3 years 6 days	St. Marks Church	80/2495		11 November 1880	Rev. Richard Coffey
246	13 November 1880	Edward Charles Gannaway Alice Jane Archer	Edward Charles Gannaway Alice Jane Archer 💍 1880/2827	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 20	Do Do	12 years 8 years	St. Peters Church Le Aro	80/2478	William Gannaway Father	13 November 1880	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
247	15 November 1880	William Bell Mary Dixon	William Beck Mary Dixon 💍 1880/2828	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 26	Do Do	3 days 20 years	St. Peters Church	80/2479		15 November 1880	Ven: Archdeacon Stock
248	16 November 1880	Alexander Cumming Elizabeth Allison	Alexander Cumming Elizabeth Allison Reid 💍 1880/2813	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 16	Do Wellington	6 years 2 years	Registrars Office Wellington	80/2461	Lucy Rickard Mother	16 November 1880	J. G. Holdsworth Regr
249	20 November 1880	Thomas Joseph Dair Bridget Caroline James	Thomas Joseph Davis Bridget Caroline Farrell 💍 1880/130	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 21	Do Do	27 years 4 years	St. Marys of the Angels, Boulcott Street	80/2500		20 November 1880	Rev. Father Kerrigan
250	22 November 1880	Charles John Redmond Elizabeth White	Charles John Rodmore Elizabeth White 💍 1880/124	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	38 28	Do Do	6 years 4 years	House of C. J. Redmond Lambton Street	80/2463		22 November 1880	Rev. H. B. Redstone

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).