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 423

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
201	31 October 1881	William Rigden Lepper Caroline Sarah Jackson	William Rigden Lepper Caroline Sarah Jackson 💍 1881/2552	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 17	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrars office	81/2635	Mary Ann Jackson	31 October 1881	W. I. Myatt, Deputy
202	1 November 1881	James Gosling Alice Hilda Nelson	James Gosling Alice Hilda Fildson 💍 1881/2537	Bachelor Spinster	draper	28 19	Wellington Do		Mr. [illegible] Residence Tory Street	81/2621	No parent in Colony	15 November 1881	Rev. H. B. Reastone United
203		William Hoskins Maud Anna Bowman	William Hookins Maud Annie Bowman 💍 1881/2556	Widower Spinster	Comedian	65 19	Wellington Do	10 days	Theatre Royal Hotel	81/2614	No parent in Colony	3 December 1881	Rev. W. H. West, Congl
204		John George Foy Ellen Mary Dempsey	John George Froy Ellen Mary Dempsey 💍 1881/2568	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 26	Wellington Do	years	St Mary of the Angels	81/2653		1 November 1881	Rev. P. Kerrigan, RC
205	2	William Gray Adelaide Mary Stevenson	William Gray Adelaide Mary Stevenson 💍 1881/2513	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 23	Wellington Do	years	Residence of Bridegroom Adelaide Road	81/2596			Rev. J. J. Hinton, Bap
206	10	Thomas John Glew Lucy Mary Pearman	Thomas John Glew Lucy Mary Pearman 💍 1881/2536	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	31 25	Wellington Do		Residence of Thomas Pearman, Martin Square	81/2620		10	Rev. H. B. Reastone, United
207		Charles Mitchell Smith Emma Devin	Charles Mitchell Smith Emma Dixon 💍 1881/2523	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 22	Wellington Do		House of Robert Dixon, Crawford (A.S.)	81/2656			Rev. William Kirk, Pres
208	14	Alexander Ferguson Hannah Katherine Agnes Taylor	Alexander Ferguson Hannah Katherine Agnes Taylor 💍 1881/2576	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Manager	32 22	Wellington Do	3 days years	St. Pauls Church	81/2660		14	Rev. Richard Coffey, left
209	21	Thomas Arthur Anne Dowd	Thomas Arthur Anne Dowd 💍 1881/2570	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	30 19	Wellington Do	7 months	St. Mary of the Angels	81/2655	No parent in Colony	5 December 1881	Rev. P. Kerrigan, RC
210		James Henry Wilton Mary Sheeran	James Henry Wilton Mary Sheeran 💍 1881/2538	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 21	Wellington Do	years 15 months	Residence of Bridegroom, Adelaide Road	81/2622		21 November 1881	Rev. H. B. Reastone, United
211		John Goodwin Caroline Dale	John Goodwin Caroline Dale 💍 1881/3314	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	28 23	Wellington Do	years	St. Peters Church	81/2602			Ven. Archdeacon Stock, left
212	23	William John Garrick Anne Hewitt	William John Garrett Annie Hewitt 💍 1881/2554	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 26	Wellington Do		Mr. Johnson's House, John Street	81/2614		23	Rev. A. J. Smith, Prim

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).