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 357

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 June 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
12	6 April 1881	Charles Gibson Jane Lamont	Charles Gibson Jane Lamont 💍 1881/907	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	26 24	Wanganui Wanganui	18 months 5 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar			April 6	F.M. Moon Registrar
13	6 April 1881	George Forrest Gibson Annie Leighton	George Hovell Gibson Annie Leighton 💍 1881/908	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	Wanganui Wanganui	9 yrs 9 yrs	Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	81/869		Ap. 6	F.M. Moon Registrar
14	6 April 1881	Allan Barbour Hogg Mary Isabella Newcombe	Allan Barbour Hogg Mary Isabella Newcombe 💍 1881/914	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	24 23	Wanganui Wanganui	24 yrs 2 yrs	In the Residence of M. S. Hogg	81/864			James Treadwell Presbyterian
15	20 April 1881	Henry Hewitt Amelia Louisa B. Atchela	Henry Hewitt Amelia Louisa Batchelar 💍 1881/913	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	No. 1 Line Concord Line	8 yrs 6 yrs	In the Residence of D. Williams	81/872		Ap. 20	Wm. J. Williams Wesleyan
16	20 April 1881	Thomas Allen Bryce Annie Elizabeth Hussein	Thomas Allen Bryce Annie Elizabeth Mussen 💍 1881/916	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Brunswick Brunswick	24 yrs 19 yrs	In the Presbyterian Church Brunswick	81/874	William Hussein, father	Ap. 25	James Treadwell Presbyterian
17	22 April 1881	Malcolm McFarlane McRae Elizabeth Annie Fox	Malcolm MacFarlane MacCaul Elizabeth Annie Cox 💍 1881/966	Bachelor Spinster	Postal Traveller	36 21	Wanganui Featherston	4 days	In the English Church Featherston	81/924		Ap. 22	W. T. White Church of England
18	2 May 1881	Daniel Willis Mary Brown	Daniel Wilkie Mary Brown 💍 1881/917 Paulo Silva Mary Brown 💍 1881/2392 Cornelius Griffin Mary Brown 💍 1881/3312	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	33 18	Waitotara Wanganui	20 yrs 8 yrs	In the Residence of John Henry Brown, Bolton Row, Wanganui	81/865	John Henry Brown, father	May 2	Chas. H. Kirk Roman Catholic
19	3 May 1881	Karl Julius Goile Frederica Marie Louisa Scharf	Karl Julius Goile Friederike Marie Louise Scherf 💍 1881/920	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 18	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 5 yrs	In the residence of William Scharf, Harrison St, Wanganui	81/877	William Scharf, father	May 3	J. H. C. Dierks Lutheran
20	3 May 1881	Henrie Hamelink Jessie Hendrick		Bachelor Spinster	Minister Domestic Servant	22 22	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs 2 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	81/868		May 3	F. M. Moon Registrar
21	5 May 1881	Daniel McFarlane Catherine Johnson	Daniel Macfarlane Catherine Johnson 💍 1881/918	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	22 20	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs 20 yrs	In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui	81/954	William Johnson, father	May 5	James Treadwell Presbyterian
22	14 May 1881	Stephen Duffy Ann Curry	Stephen Duffy Ann Curry 💍 1881/926	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	50 36	Wanganui Wanganui	6 months 6 months	In the Catholic Church Wanganui	81/862		May 14	Rev. C. H. Kirk Roman Catholic
23	19 May 1881	Thomas Mercer Poland Emma Wise	Thomas Mercer Copeland Emma Wise 💍 1881/919	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 21	Wanganui Wanganui	10 yrs 12 months	In the residence of William Wise, Wanganui	81/877		May 19	James Treadwell Presbyterian

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).