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 411

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30th day of 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
80	28 April 1881	Charles Archibald Fairlie Alice Caldwell Climie	Charles Archibald Fairlie Alice Caldwell Climie 💍 1881/1529	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	28 21	Wellington	4 months years	Residence of Rev. J. Paterson	81/1527		28 April 1881	Rev. J. Paterson Pres
81	4 May 1881	Ernest Charles Wilmot Porter Ethel Maud Brown	Ernest Charles Wilmot Porter Ethel Maud Brown 💍 1881/940	Bachelor Spinster	Bank agent	24 18	Karori	4 days years	St Marys Karori	81/898	Annie Brown Mother	4 May 1881	Rev. W. Ballachey
82	5 [illegible] 1881	Edward Saunders Elizabeth Jack	Edward Saunders Elizabeth Jack 💍 1881/1401	Widower Spinster	Engineer	34 36	Wellington	2 years 1 month	Registrars Office	81/1375		5 [illegible] 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
83	9 [illegible] 1881	George Pudney Mary Hill	George Pudney Mary Hill 💍 1881/976	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	34 28		years	St Peters Church	81/911		9 [illegible] 1881	Ven Archdeacon Stock
84	[illegible] 1881	James Foster Adams Elizabeth Brimicombe	James Foster Adams Elizabeth Brimicombe 💍 1881/1403	Widower Spinster	Plumber	27 20		7 years years	Registrars Office	81/1376	Fanny Brimicombe Mother	[illegible] 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
85	10 [illegible] 1881	Leigh Clarke Fuller Louisa Sarah Jane Sandilands	Leigh Clarke Miller Louisa Sarah Jane Sandiland 💍 1881/957	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 19		8 weeks 2 years	St Pauls Church	81/916	B. N. Sandilands Father	10 [illegible] 1881	Rev. B. W. Harvey
86	11 [illegible] 1881	John Thomas Lloyd Sarah Elizabeth Waters	John Thomas Lloyd Sarah Elizabeth Waters 💍 1881/1404	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 21		3 days	Registrars Office	81/1377		11 [illegible] 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
87	[illegible] 1881	George Allport Elizabeth Page James	George Allport Elizabeth Page James 💍 1881/958	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 23		years	St Pauls Church	81/917		[illegible] 1881	Rev. B. W. Harvey
88	16 [illegible] 1881	William Callan Maria Morgan	William Callan Maria Morgan 💍 1881/1405	Bachelor	Shipwright	22 21		4 years	Registrars Office	81/1378		16 [illegible] 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
89	[illegible] 1881	Charles Autonie Thomas Ellen Wesley	Charles Antonio Thomas Ellen Wesley 💍 1881/944	Widower Widow	Cook	50 30		16 years 2 [illegible]	St Marys Cathedral	81/902		[illegible] 1881	Rev. J. [illegible] Namara
90	17 [illegible] 1881	John William Smith Christiana Fish	John William Smith Christiana Fish 💍 1881/941	Bachelor	Ironmonger	32 21		years 1 year	St Marys Church Karori	81/899		17 [illegible] 1881	Rev. W. Ballachey
91	[illegible] 1881	William Callaghan Mary Ann Thomas	William Callaghan Mary Ann Thomas 💍 1881/1406 William Cullen Lucie Anne Thomas 💍 1881/470	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 26		4 years 2 years	Registrars Office	81/1379		[illegible] 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).