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 531

District of Wairau 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
25	7 November 1881	William Edward Pembroke Blouston Zoe Horne	William Edward Pembroke Clouston Zoe Horne 💍 1881/2642	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	26 years 18 years	Blenheim Blenheim	2 years 18 years	The House of Mr L. H. Horne, Mr R. C. S. Long, Blenheim	81/764	Lewis Keele Horne, father	7 November 1881	H. F. Butt
26	22 November 1881	James Blick Margaret Barclay	James Blick Margaret Barclay 💍 1881/2638	Bachelor Widow	Carter	28 years 34 years	Spring Creek Spring Creek	17 years 15 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	81/2424		22 November 1881	Registrar of Marriages Blenheim
27	2 December 1881	Adolphus Frederick William Lorie Sarah Pollen Wallis	Adolphus Fredrick William Lorie Sarah Ellen Wallis 💍 1881/2535	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 years 21 years	Blenheim Wellington	10 months 21 years	Rev. Mr Jones' Primitive Methodist Church, Wellington	81/2611		2 December 1881	Reverend Daniel Dutton, Wellington
28	9 December 1881	David Burns Mary Storey	David Burns Mary Storey 💍 1881/2641	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	25 years 21 years	Blenheim Wairau	18 months 21 years	The House of Mr George Storey, Renwick New Road, Wairau	81/2426		9 December 1881	Reverend H. F. Butt
29	14 December 1881	Robert Patchett Jane Bubb	Robert Patchett Jane Bubb 💍 1881/2645	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	22 years 16 years	Blenheim Blenheim	7 months 2 months	The House of Rev. F. G. Carr, Blenheim	81/2430	No person resident in New Zealand authorized to give consent	28 December 1881	Reverend F. G. Carr
30	19 December 1881	Henry George Daikee Hannah Osgood	Henry George Daikee Hannah Osgood 💍 1881/2643	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Dressmaker	24 years 20 years	Blenheim Blenheim	12 years 10 years	The House of Mr James Osgood, Wairau	81/2428	James Osgood, father	19 December 1881	Reverend F. G. Carr
31	23 December 1881	Francis Thomas Leonard Miriam Jane Bollier	Francis Thomas Leonard Miriam Jane Collier 💍 1881/2644	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer	22 years 18 years	Blenheim Blenheim	6 weeks 9 months	The House of Mr Thomas Bollier, Blenheim	81/2429	Thomas Bollier, father	23 December 1881	Reverend F. G. Carr
32	30 December 1881	William Tait Johanna McKenzie	William Tait Johanna McKenzie 💍 1881/2646 William Harvey Jessie McKenzie 💍 1881/131	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	29 years 21 years	Blenheim Blenheim	16 years 18 months	The House of Mr Martin Healy, Blenheim	81/2431		30 December 1881	Reverend F. G. Carr

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).