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 403

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
25	14 February 1881	Joseph McGhie Sarah Emma Barnes	Joseph McGhie Sarah Emma Barnes 💍 1881/314	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	23 24	Wellington	4 years 6 years	Mr Redstone's Chapel Courtenay Place	81/220		14 February 1881	Rev. H. B. Reastone United
26	15 February 1881	Denis Mulhane Catherine Kerney	Denis Mulhane Catherine Kearney 💍 1881/328	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 21		1 year 5 years	St. Mary's Cathedral Hill Street	81/211		15 February 1881	Rev. J. McNamara
27		James Sullevan Mary O'Shea	James Sullivan Mary O'Shea 💍 1881/307	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 25		4 years 18 months	St. Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street	81/213			Rev. Father Kerrigan
28	17 February 1881	Austin Rose Elizabeth Savile	Austin Rose Elizabeth Savile 💍 1881/316	Bachelor Spinster		22 19		4 years 6 years	House of Mr. Savile	81/222	Stephen Savile, Father	17 February 1881	Rev. H. B. Reastone United
29	18 February 1881	William Hooke Ada Foden	William Hooke Ada Foden 💍 1881/315	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	27 17		5 years 6 months	Mrs. Foden's Cottage Austin Street	81/221	W. A. Foden, Mother	18 February 1881	Rev. A. B. Masten
30		Daniel Glennie Sarah Boon	Daniel Glennie Sarah Boon 💍 1881/2729	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 27		6 years 2 years	Mr. White's House North Street	81/234			Rev. A. B. Masten
31	22 February 1881	Walter Abraham Kellow Emma Lines	Walter Abraham Kellow Emma Lines 💍 1881/323	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21		4 years 2 years	Mrs. Stanbury's Residence Courtenay Place	81/206		22 February 1881	Rev. James Paterson
32		Edward Reeves Mary Ann Reed	Edward Reeves Mary Ann Reid 💍 1881/1414	Bachelor Widow	Platelayer	30 26		4 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	81/365			W. I. Smith
33	23 February 1881	Alexander William McIntosh Emma Rose Moore	Alexander William McIntosh Emma Rose Moore 💍 1881/321	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 16	Hutt	1 year 6 years	St. Peter's Residence Hutt	81/226	Henry Moore, Father	23 February 1881	Rev. William Cannell
34		Arthur Howard Harriet Lydia Bentley	Arthur Howard Harriet Lydia Bentley 💍 1881/2973	Bachelor Spinster	Bookmaker	22 20	Wellington	4 years 9 years	St. Peter's Church Te Aro	81/230	Harriet Bentley, Mother		Venble. Archdeacon Stock
35	25 February 1881	John Hickey Hannah Stack	John Hickey Hannah Stack 💍 1881/281	Bachelor Spinster	A. C. Force	27 23	Taranaki Wellington	1 year 2 years	Roman Catholic Church New Plymouth	81/160
36	2 March 1881	Francis William Neadre Elizabeth Lee	Francis William Niddrie Elizabeth Lee 💍 1881/310	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 22		5 years 3 years	St. Mark's Church Te Aro	81/216		2 March 1881	Rev. Richard Coffey

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).