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 425

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
225	5 December 1881	Thomas Tozer Kerslake Harriet Elizabeth Best	Thomas Tozer Kerslake Harriett Elizabeth Best 💍 1881/2524	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	30 30	Wellington Ohariu Valley	3 days years	House of Mr Best, Ohariu Valley	81/2604		5 December 1881	Rev. William Kirk
226		Niels Johnson Mary Alice Marron	Neils Jonson Mary Alice Marron 💍 1881/2572	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	21 20	Wellington	1 year 2 years	St Mary of the Angels	81/2656	No parental consent in Colony	19 December 1881	Rev. P. Kerrigan
227	6	Walter Barley Mary Ann Hoopert	Walter Bailey Mary Ann Hooper 💍 1881/2577	Bachelor Widow	Sawmiller	39 38		7 days 14 days	Registrar's Office	81/2638		6 December 1881	W. Myaog, Dep.
228		Charles Rawlinson Bridget Florence Hobson	Charles Rawlinson Bridget Florence Hohson 💍 1881/2601	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 21		4 years	St Mary's Cathedral	81/2663			Rev. John McNam
229		William Richard Jones Annie Sutherland		Bachelor Widow	Pattern maker	23 25		4 months years	House of Mr Jones, Petre Street			7 December 1881	Rev. William Kirk
230	8	Adolphus Frederick William Lowe Sarah Ellen Wallis	Adolphus Fredrick William Lorie Sarah Ellen Wallis 💍 1881/2535	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 21	Blenheim Wellington	9 months years	Primitive Methodist Chapel, Webb Street	81/2611		8 December 1881	Rev. Daniel Dutton
231	9	John George Chapman Elizabeth Neill	John George Chapman Elizabeth Neill 💍 1881/2558	Widower Spinster	Warehouseman	48 24			House of Bridegroom, Arthur Street	81/2618		9 December 1881	Rev. W. H. West
232	10	John Salmons Mary Webb	John Salmons Mary Webb 💍 1881/2579	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 16	Ohariu Valley Upper Hutt	years years	Registrar's Office	81/2640	John Thomas Powell Webb, Father	10 December 1881	J. G. Holdsworth
233		Thomas Hutchison Catherine Alice Hales	Thomas Hutchison Catherine Alice Hale 💍 1881/2557	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	27 22	Wellington		St Andrews Church	81/2617			Rev. W. H. West
234	12	Robert John McDonald Matilda Munns	Robert John McDonald Matilda Munns 💍 1881/2543	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	26 20			House of Bridegroom, Tory Street	81/2627	Elizabeth Townsend, Mother	12 December 1881	Rev. N. B. Reaston
235		Joshua Morris Rachel Faulker	Joshua Morris Rachel Faulkes 💍 1881/2544	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 17			House of Mr Cross, Arthur Street	81/2628	Mary Jane Cross, Mother		Rev. H. B. Reaston
236		George Hirschberg Freida Simonis	George Hirschberg Friede Simonis 💍 1881/2580	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 20			Registrar's Office	81/2641	Line Ahlers, Mother	13 December 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).