Intentions to Marry, 1881

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840393, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

Page 426

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1887

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
237	13 December 1881	Shadrach Parker Kate Clarkson	Shadrach Parker Kate Clarkson 💍 1881/2583	Widower Spinster	Farmer	39 18	Lower Hutt	years	Registrars Office	81/12644	No parent in Colony	29 December 1887	Mr. D. Ryall
238	15 December 1881	Walter Elias Woods Annie Riley	Walter Elias Woods Annie Riley 💍 1881/2578	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 21	Wellington		Registrars Office	81/12639		15 December 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
239	16 December 1881	Walter John Wilton Martha Potter	Walter John Wilton Martha Potter 💍 1881/2521	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	24 20			St. Peters Church	81/12605	William Potter, Father	16 December 1881	Ven'ble Archdeacon Stock
240	19 December 1881	William Forbes Keating Jessie Phillips	William Forbes Keating Jessie Phillips 💍 1881/2573	Bachelor Spinster	Physician	43 36		8 days 3 days	St. Pauls Cathedral			19 December 1881	Reverend J. L. Keating
241		Thomas Broad Priscilla Barnes	Thomas Coad Priscilla Barnes 💍 1881/2605	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 25		4 years	Mr. Nouders House, Thompson Street	81/12664			Reverend John Muir
242	20 December 1881	John Berry Jane Samson	John Berry Jane Samson 💍 1881/2581	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	36 33			Registrars Office	81/12642		20 December 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
243	21 December 1881	George Harnish Salvadora Taylor	George Harnish Salvadora Taylor 💍 1881/2606	Widower Spinster	Grocer	29 22			House of Rev. C. S. Ogg, Terrace	81/12668		21 December 1881	Reverend C. S. Ogg
244	22 December 1881	William Collier Mary Campbell Scott	William Collin Boulter Mary Campbell Scott 💍 1881/2520	Bachelor Widow	Steward	23 27		4 days years	St. Peters Church	81/12604		22 December 1881	Ven'ble Archdeacon Stock
245	28 December 1881	Thomas Flaws Isabella Taylor	Thomas Flaws Isabella Taylor 💍 1881/2582	Bachelor Spinster	Locomotive Fireman	22 18	Kaiwarra		Registrars Office	81/12643	Edward Taylor, Father	28 December 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
246		William Alexander Elizabeth Sinclair	William Alexander Elizabeth Sinclair 💍 1882/511	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	45 33	Wellington	6 days	House of the [illegible]				Reverend J. Paterson
247		Jonathan Wilkinson Elizabeth Amy Smith	Jonathan Wilkinson Elizabeth Amy Smith 💍 1882/292	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 19	Karori Ohrio	3 months years	Registrars Office	82/302	No parent in Amelia and [illegible] brother	11 January 1882	J. G. Holdsworth

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

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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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).