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 402

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
13	25 January 1881	Francis Robert Hillson Harriet Elizabeth Trueman	Francis Robert Hillsden Harriet Elizabeth Trueman 💍 1881/1411	Widower Spinster	Printer	26 21	Wellington	4 years 5 years	Registrars Office	81/1361		25 January 1881	J. G. Holdsworth, Reg
14		William Richard Callam Eleanor Fawley Craig	Robert William Richard Callum Eleanor Fairley Craig 💍 1881/2962	Bachelor Spinster	Coach builder	26 19			House of Mrs. C. J. Ogg Terrace	81/1240	Annie Craig, mother		Revd C. J. Ogg, Pres
15	26	Vincent Edwin Belgrand Elizabeth Caffrey	Vincent Edwin Belgrave Elizabeth Caffrey 💍 1881/1410	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 25		2 years 2 months	Registrars Office	81/1360		26	J. G. Holdsworth, Reg
16		William Henry Ward Marion Harper Armstrong	William Henry Ward Marion Harper Armstrong 💍 1881/2976	Widower Spinster	Mariner	25 23		6 months 6 months	St. Pauls	81/1234			Revd B. W. Harvey, CofE
17	28	Thomas Bissett Elizabeth Theidow	Thomas Bissett Elizabeth Sheidow 💍 1881/2730	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	35 24		1 month 5 days	Residence of Revd C. J. Ogg	81/241		28	Revd C. J. Ogg, Pres
18	29	John Hutcheson Agnes Rae	John Hutcheson Agnes Rae 💍 1881/1412	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 27		3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	81/1362		29	J. G. Holdsworth, Reg
19	1 February	William Chatfield Catherine Blyth	William Chatfield Catherine Blyth 💍 1881/2977	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	26 20		2 years 3 years	St. Pauls	81/235	Eliza Blyth, Mother	1 February	Revd B. W. Harvey, CofE
20	5	Charles Martin Elizabeth Sarah Mildenhall	Charles Martin Elizabeth Sarah Muldenhall 💍 1881/309	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 20		2 years 2 years	St. Marks Church	81/215	Charlotte Mildenhall, Mother	5	Revd Richard Coffey, CofE
21	1	Thomas George Kelsham Mary Ann Warren	Thomas George Kershaw Mary Ann Warren 💍 1881/109	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 19		6 years 6 years	Registrars Office	81/1364	No relation in Colony	10	J. G. Holdsworth, Reg
22	10	Walter Beyer Annie Jane Gray	Walter Beyer Minnie Jane Gray 💍 1881/1413	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	23 23		3 years 6 months	Registrars Office	81/1363		10	H. J. Wyatt, Depy Reg
23		James Hooper Jessie Grant Morrison	James Hooper Jessie G Morrison 💍 1881/2961	Widower Spinster	Plasterer	58 22		22 years 9 years	Mr. Hoopers Residence	81/1239			Revd J. J. Henton, Bapt
24	12	William James Harland Beatrice Soulsby Lackland	William James Harland Beatrice Soulsby Lackland 💍 1881/2964	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 23		15 months 3 days	Wesley Church	81/1243		12	Revd W. Kirk, Wes

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).