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 422

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1881

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
189	20 October 1881	James Gradan Grey Isabella Mary Ann Bloom		Widower Spinster	Journalist	34 20	Wellington	years months	Registrars Office		Mother	20 October 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
190	24 October 1881	Edward chilligan [illegible] chilligan		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	24 19		18 months years	House of Mrs. chilligan Ingestre Street	81/2651	No parents in Colony		Revd W. H. West
191		Patrick Doyle Margaret [illegible]	Patrick Doyle Margret Morris 💍 1881/3315	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 22		3 years years	S. Mary of the Angels	81/2652		26 October 1881	Revd P. Kerrigan
192	25 October 1881	Phoenix Briggs Teresa Rooney	Phoenix Briggs Teresa Rooney 💍 1881/2549	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 24			Registrars Office	81/2632		25 October 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
193		Robert Smith Jane Jones	Robert Smith Jane Jones 💍 1881/2525	Bachelor Widow	Builder	38 42			Revd J. [illegible] Residence Terrace	81/2608			Revd John Muir
194		Edward Boulton Matilda Louisa [illegible]	Edward Boulton Matilda London 💍 1881/2546	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	Pahautanui Pahautanui		English Church Pahautanui	81/2621	No parent in Colony		Revd James McWilliam
195	27 October 1881	Charles John Panter Helen Harriet Stevens	Charles John Painter Helen Harriett Stevens 💍 1881/2559	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 19	Wellington	4 months	Mr W. Redstones Residence Ghuznee Street	81/2619	William Stevens Father	27 October 1881	Revd H. B. Redstone
196		John Clark Eliza King	John Clark Eliza King 💍 1881/2550	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 22		years	Registrars Office	81/9633			J. G. Holdsworth
197		John McIntosh Georgina Buck	John McIntosh Georgina Buck 💍 1881/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	23 18	Wainuiomata		Registrars Office	81/2637	No parent in Colony	10 November 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
198		James Ulysses Browne Ellen Flattery	James Ulyses Brown Ellen Slattery 💍 1881/2567	Bachelor Spinster	Window [illegible] Servant	22 22	Wellington around View	1 year	St. Mary of the Angels	81/2651		27 October 1881	Revd P. Kerrigan
199	28 October 1881	Duncan McIntosh Maggie Jones	Duncan McMurrich Maggie Jones 💍 1881/2595	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 22		years 5 days	St. Mary of the Angels	81/2662		28 October 1881	Revd John McIntosh
200	29 October 1881	William Henry Payne Ellen [illegible]	William Henry Payne Ellen Catt 💍 1881/2551	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 19	Porirua	2 years	Registrars Office	81/2634	William [illegible] Father	29 October 1881	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).