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 387

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
263	6 December 1880	William West Knowles Emily Foster	William West Knowles Emily Trotter 💍 1880/2818	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 23	Wellington Wellington	27 years 23 years	Congregational Church	80/12440		6 December 1880	Rev. W. H West
264	7 December 1880	John Want Johnson Margaret Ann Gibson	John Dant Johnson Margaret Anne Gibson 💍 1880/134	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 18	Wellington Wellington	2 years all her life	St Joseph's Church	80/12503	Ellen Budd, Sister	7 December 1880	Rev. Father Kerrigan
265	7 December 1880	Albert Arthur Bon Harriet Catherine Ohner	Albert Arthur Bowley Harriet Catherine Schuler 💍 1880/2829	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	28 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 2 years	St. Peters Church	80/12480		7 December 1880	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
266	8 December 1880	James McCurran Mary Murtagh	James McCutchan Mary Murtagh 💍 1880/135	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 30	Wellington Wellington	3 days 6 days	St Joseph's Church	80/12504		8 December 1880	Rev. Father Kerrigan
267	8 December 1880	Frederick Pierard Anne Crabbee	Frederick Peirard Anne Crabtree 💍 1880/138	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	22 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years 6 years	Mr Crabtrees House	80/12484		8 December 1880	Rev. W. Kirk
268	10 December 1880	John Wilson Elncy Ann Phelps	John Wilson Mary Ann Philpot 💍 1880/143 John Wilson Elizabeth Sutherland 💍 1880/2166 John Wilson Ellen Clarke 💍 1880/206	Bachelor Spinster	Merman	27 26	Wellington Wellington	5 years 2 years	House, Willis	80/12489		10 December 1880	Rev. John Elliot
269	11 December 1880	John Kilmister Elizabeth Haywood	John Kilmister Elizabeth Haywood 💍 1880/2833	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 17	Wellington Wellington	all life all life	Registrars Office	80/12462	George Haywood, Father	11 December 1880	J. G. Holdsworth
270	13 December 1880	William Walsh Mary Courtenay	William Walsh Mary Courtney 💍 1880/2934	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	25 22	Wellington Wellington	9 years 4 years	St. Marys Cathedral	80/12513		13 December 1880	Rev. Father McNamara
271	14 December 1880	Edwin Henry Trueman Annie Bottoms	Edwin Henry Trueman Annie Collins 💍 1880/2816	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	20 20	Wellington Wellington	20 years 3 years	The Father of the Bridegrooms	80/12468	Henry Trueman, Father. No person informally	14 December 1880	Rev. A.B. Chaston
272	15 December 1880	Jesse Barrow Rosanna Abbott	Jesse Barrow Rosanna Abbott 💍 1880/2931	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 23	Wellington Wellington	9 days 23 years	St Pauls Church	80/12510		15 December 1880	Rev. B. W. Harvey
273	17 December 1880	William Jonks Emily Gertrude Pinker	William Tonks Emily Gertrude Pinker 💍 1880/137	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	21 22	Wellington Wellington	5 years 6 years	House of Rev W. J. Williams	80/12483		17 December 1880	Rev. W. J. Williams
274	18 December 1880	Andrew Lowry Eliza Mary Cauty	Andrew McArtney Loasby Eliza Mary Canty 💍 1880/2822	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	22 23	Wellington Wellington	11 months all life	Mr Shaws House	80/12474		18 December 1880	Rev. James 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).