Intentions to Marry, 1882

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840394, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 209

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1882

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
10	29 November 1882	Samuel Feraith Degan Mary Buie Darr	Samuel Forsaith Logan Mary Muir Barr 💍 1882/2735	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	21 22	Otahuhu Onehunga	21 years 18 years	Presbyterian	82/604		29 November 1882	Rev James Bruce
74	29 November 1882	Peter Reid Jessie Smedley	Peter Reid Jessie Smedley 💍 1882/3442	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	65 66	Ponsonby Ponsonby	2 years 5 years	Dwelling house of Mrs Smedley Kingsland	82/404		29 November 1882	Rev H. Rimeiman
75	1 December 1882	William Frederick Mason Sarah Teresa Maher	William Frederick Mason Sarah Teresa Maher 💍 1882/2923	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	24 17	Thames Auckland	4 days 8 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Auckland	82/663	James Maher, Father	1 December 1882	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
76	1 December 1882	Joel Nicholas Reed Arabella Stead Wright	Joel Nicholas Reed Arabella Steads Wright 💍 1882/2924	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic	21 23	Ponsonby Ponsonby	15 months 18 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Auckland	82/664		2 December 1882	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
77	1 December 1882	John Burch Kate Absolum	John Hunt Kate Absalom 💍 1882/3581	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 21	Otahuhu Otahuhu	2 years 21 years	St Marys Church Parnell	82/622		2 December 1882	Rev. I. S. Gold
471	29 November 1882	Henry Edwardes Handly Mary Harriette Wells	Henry Edwards Handley Mary Harriette Wells 💍 1882/2533	Widower Spinster	Boilerman	47 21	Auckland Auckland	7 years 8 years	The Right Revd The Bishops Chapel Parnell	82/625		29 November 1882	W. B. Cowie Bishop
472	29 November 1882	James Findlay Fanny Hayes	James Finlay Fanny Hayes 💍 1882/2543	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller Domestic	28 25	Auckland Auckland	10 years 11 years	Dwelling home of I. W. Hayes, York St, Newton Auckland	82/634		29 November 1882	Rev H. L. Hodgson
473	29 November 1882	John Goodland Mary Cleavontispath	John Howland Mary Eleanor Fitzpatrick 💍 1882/2746	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Dressmaker	29 22	Auckland Auckland	6 weeks 4 months	Roman Catholic Church & Chapel Auckland	82/614		29 November 1882	Rev Walter McDonald
478	1 December 1882	Robert John Ware Elizabeth Sophia James	Robert John Ware Elizabeth Sophia James 💍 1882/3456	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Auckland Auckland	5 years 20 years	St Matthews Church Auckland	82/885	Louis Rose James, Father	2 December 1882	Rev. W. Wells M.A.
479	1 December 1882	Henry Richard McElwain Ada Matilda Olway	George Richard McElwain Ada Matilda Otway 💍 1882/3641	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Seamstress	24 27	Dailakerci Mt Eden	8 years 17 years	Dwelling house of Mr. Olway, Mt Eden Auckland	82/889		4 December 1882	Rev. A. Wallin

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).