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 415

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
117	4 July 1881	John McLaughlin Agnes Gregg	John McLaughlin Agnes Gregg 💍 1881/1807	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	30 30	Wellington	7 years 4 years	St Mary of the Angels	81/1809		4 July 1881	Revd P. Kerrigan
118		James Carroll Heni Materoa	James Carroll Heni Materoa 💍 1881/1781	Bachelor Spinster	Native Interpreter	24 25		3 weeks 3 days	Registrars Office	81/1482			J. G. Holdsworth
119		George Thomas Mary Carroll	George Thomas Mary Carroll 💍 1881/1772	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 19		3 years 1 year	House of George Thomas	81/1449	No person in Colony	18	Revd John Muir
120	5	Thomas James Hope Elizabeth June Waters	Thomas James Hope Elizabeth Jane Waters 💍 1881/1751	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 16		2 years 5 years	House of Mrs Gilchrist	81/1476	Elizabeth Waters, mother	5	Revd William Kirk
121	6	William Smith Potter Sarah Dixon	William Smith Potter Sarah Dixon 💍 1881/1780	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	26 28		2 weeks 4 days	Sydney Street	81/1481		6	Revd G. S. Dutton
122	6	Ernest [illegible] Jane Phillips	Ernest Minifie Jane Phillips 💍 1881/1764	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 19		4 years 4 years	Registrars Office	81/1789	Mary Ann Phillips, mother	20	J. G. Holdsworth
123	7	Albert Edwin Campion Laura [illegible] Taylor	Albert Edwin Campion Laura Amender Taylor 💍 1881/1782	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	25 18		4 years 9 months	Registrars Office	81/1783	Richard Taylor, Father	7	J. G. Holdsworth
124	8	Stephen William Green Frances Edith Theresa Colley	Stephen William Green Frances Edith Theresa Colley 💍 1881/1808	Bachelor Spinster	Bookfinisher	24 23		12 years 1 week	St Mary of the Angels	81/1810		8	Revd P. Kerrigan
125	11	William Stephen Thompson Ellen Susan Morgan	William Stephen Thompson Ellen Susan Morgan 💍 1881/1783	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	Porirua	years years	Registrars Office	81/1484	John Morgan, Father	11	J. G. Holdsworth
126		William Holsted Eleanor Nuttall	William Holsted Eleanor Nuttall 💍 1881/1784	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	25 21	Wellington	2 years 1 year	Registrars Office	81/1485			J. G. Holdsworth
127		Selim Isaacson Margaret Kathleen Macartney Ormsby	Selim Croxson Margaret Kathleen Macartney Ormsby 💍 1881/1785	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 35		1 month 6 weeks	Registrars Office	81/1486			J. G. Holdsworth
128		Martin Cargill Jemima Grant	Martin Cargill Jemima Twatt 💍 1881/1750	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	30 21		7 years 2 years	House of Mr Cargill	81/1435			Revd James Paterson

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).