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 386

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
257	24 November 1880	Edward Hall Mary Grey	Edward Hall Mary Gray 💍 1880/461	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 29	Wellington Wellington	4 days 5 years	House of Mrs Grey Terrace Wellington	80/1360		24 November 1880	Rev. Charles C. Gog
258		James Liddy Emma Pike	James Leddy Emma Pike 💍 1880/133	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 22	Wellington Upper Hutt	1 year 22 years	St Mary of the Angels	80/12502			Rev. Father McNamara
259		John Prince Luk Jacobina McGregor	John Pearce Luke Jacobina McGregor 💍 1880/140	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 19	Wellington Wellington	6 years 6 years	House of Mr McGregor, Father of the Bride	80/12486	Henry Alexander McGregor, Father		Rev. W. S. Potter
260	25	Patrick Casey Mary Kelty	Patrick Casey Mary Keelty 💍 1880/2933	Widower Spinster	Waiter	25 24	Wellington Wellington	3 years 4 years	St Mary of the Angels	80/12512		25	Rev. John McNamara
261		Niels Jorgen Hanson Catherine Andrews	Niels Jorgen Hansen Catherine Andrews 💍 1880/2824	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	40 45	Wellington Wellington	4 years 5 years	Registrar's Office	80/12458			J. G. Holasworth
262	26	John Levin Bacon Sophia Joanes		Widower Spinster	Aerated Water manufacturer	45 27	Wellington Wellington	5 years 4 days	St Marks			26	Rev. Richard Coffey
263	27	James Jasper Dowland Amy Hilda Cannon	James Jasper Dowland Amy Hilda Cannon 💍 1880/2830	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	30 21	Wellington	1 year 2 years	Registrar's Office	80/12459		27	J. G. Holasworth
264	1 Dec.	Harwood Cozens Harriet Edwards	Marwood Cozens Harriet Edwards 💍 1880/2831	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 27	Wellington Wellington	7 days 7 days	Registrar's Office	80/12460		1 Dec.	J. G. Holasworth
265		Robert Evans Mary Ann Caroline Le Geyt	Robert Evans Mary Ann Caroline Osgood 💍 1880/2930	Bachelor Spinster	Milk (Cutting)	36 27	Wellington Thorndon	2 years all life	St. Paul's Church	80/12509			Rev. T. H. Harvey
266	2	George Frederick Wellany Emily Parry	George Frederick Williams Emily Parry 💍 1880/128	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 23	Wellington Country	5 years	Bethel Chapel	80/4/10		2	Rev. Samuel Costall
267	3	John Stander Emma Greathead	John Staanden Emma Greathead 💍 1880/2815	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	25 30	Wellington Wellington	7 days 7 days	Mr. Stander's House Karori	80/12469		3	Rev. A. B. Chaston
268	4	Edward Goodban Caroline Peckham	Edward Goodban Caroline Peckham 💍 1880/2832	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 23	Wellington Wellington	6 years all life	Registrar's Office Wellington	80/12461		4	J. G. Holasworth

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).