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 419

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30th day of 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
165	17 September 1881	Samuel Lyster Elizabeth Thriley	Samuel Lyster Elizabeth Stribley 💍 1881/1798	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 17	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	years	St Peters Church	81/1823	Kezia Cater, mother	17 Sep: 1881	Ven ble Archdeacon Stock
166	19	Hannibal Rickard Ellen Russell	Hannibal Rickard Ellen Russell 💍 1881/1803	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 17	Hutt Lower Hutt	3 years years	House of C.R. England	81/1805	Edward Russell, Father	19	Rev? William Cannell
167	21	William John Walker Margaret Adelaide Reid	William John Walker Margaret Adelaide Reid 💍 1881/2562	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 33	Wellington Wellington	2 years years	St Johns Church	81/2444		21	Rev? James Paterson
168	22	Frank Taylor Alice Wilmshurst	Frank Taylor Alice Wilmshurst 💍 1881/1777	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville		Registrars Office	81/34507	John Wilmshurst, Father	22	J. G. Holdsworth
169		Edgar Arundel Lewis Florence Jean Brown	Edgar Arundel Lewis Florence Jean Brown 💍 1881/2527	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	25 20	Karori Karori	6 months years	St Mary's	81/2610	Annie Brown, mother		Rev? W. Ballachey
170	23	Thomas Green Elizabeth Cummings	Thomas Green Elizabeth Cummings 💍 1881/1752	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	25 27	Wellington Wellington	2 years 6 Weeks	St Marks Church	81/1471		23	Rev? Richard Coffey
171		Samuel Kent Kate Barry	Samuel Kent Kate Barry 💍 1881/1809	Widower Spinster	Messenger	41 28	Wellington Wellington	years	St Mary of the Angels	81/1811			Rev? P. Kerrigan
172	24	Frederick Augustus Brookes Elizabeth Rountree	Frederick Augustus Brooks Elizabeth Rountree 💍 1881/2512	Bachelor Spinster	Artist	28 20	Wellington Wellington	4 months years	House of Rev. J.J. Hinton	81/2595	No relation in Colony to give consent		J.J. Hinton
173	26	Richard Kilmister Martha Elizabeth Ebden	Richard Kilmister Martha Elizabeth Ebden 💍 1881/1778	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 15	Taita Taita		Registrars Office	81/1802	George Ebden, Father	26 Sep:	J. G. Holdsworth
174	28	Charles Frederick Barrington Beatrice Gabriel	Charles Frederick Barrington Bedelia Cahill 💍 1881/1797	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	25 21	Wellington Wellington	3 years years	Registrars Office	81/1804		28	J. G. Holdsworth
175		John Thomas Hodder Charlotte Elizabeth Staniforth	John Thomas Hodder Charlotte Elizabeth Haybittle 💍 1881/1800	Bachelor Spinster	Licenced Victualler	21 21	Upper Hutt Trentham	3 days years	St Johns	81/825			Rev? C. H. S. Nicholls
176		Andrew Stevenson Bentley Beatrice Grenville	Andrew Stevenson Bentley Beatrice Greville 💍 1881/2516	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 20	Wellington Te Aro		St Marks Church	81/2599	Joseph Henry Grenville, Father		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).