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 357

District of Patea Quarter ending 31 March 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
157	10 January 1882	Thos Rosson Pointon Loabel Simson	Thomas Rofson Pointon Isabel Simson 💍 1882/259	Bachelor Spinster	Gaoler none	29 24	Wanganui Patea	8 mo 10 days	Church of England	82/1226		10 January 1882	Rev a Dasent
158	12 January 1882	Juo mcLean Cameron Sarah Wood	John McLean Cameron Sarah Wood 💍 1882/371	Bachelor Widow	mariner none	30 37	Patea Patea	7 3 mo	Registrar's Office at Patea	82/1219		12 January 1882	F Long Registrar
159	23 January 1882	Jno augustine Pain Jome Eliz Edwards	John Augustine Pain Jane Elizabeth Edwards 💍 1882/378	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	36 17	Patea Manutahi	5 days 3 yrs	The William Edwards Home at Whakamara	82/1225	William Edwards Father	23 January 1882	Rev. Jas Jorry
160	30 January 1882	Andrew Taylor Mary Hagar Traill	Andrew Taylor Mary Hagar Traill 💍 1882/376	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer none	24 25	Waverley Patea	2 yrs 5 days	The William Leonards House at Waverley	82/1223		30 January 1882	Rev R. J Allsworth
161	7 February 1882	Arch Black Sinclair Mary Jane Graham	Archibald Black Sinclair Mary Jane Graham 💍 1882/373	Bachelor Spinster	Engine driver Housemaid	33 [illegible]	[illegible] Patea	6 mo 1 mo	Registrar's Office at Patea	82/1220		7 February 1882	Francis Long
162	17 February 1882	Henry Hughes Mary Emily Johnston	Henry Hughes Mary Emily Johnston 💍 1882/370	Bachelor Spinster	Settler none	25 18	Patea Patea	3 yrs 7 yrs	Catholic Church at Patea	82/1218	Johanna Johnston Mother	20 February 1882	Rev. M Erogan
163	18 February 1882	Amos Cornwall Ellen Bruin	Amos Cornwall Ellen Bavin 💍 1882/374	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker none	22 17	Patea Patea	11 yrs 2 yrs	Registrar's Office at Patea	82/1221	no one in the Colony having authority	4 March 1882	Francis Long
164	23 February 1882	Daniel Hally Williamson Clara Alia Luxford	Daniel Holly Williamson Clara Alice Luxford 💍 1882/377	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	29 24	Waverley Waverley	7 yrs 1 yr	Mr Stauton's Residence at Waverley	82/1224		23 February 1882	Rev f. R. Allsworth
165	13 March 1882	William Pratt Shanna Loaddy	William Pratt Johanna Caddy 💍 1882/375	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant Domestic	35 28	Manutahi Patea	4 yrs 1 yr	Wesleyan Church at Patea	82/1222		13 March 1882	Rev. J. A Luxford
166	30 March 1882	Rudolf Hunger Elizabeth McCarty	Rudolf Hunger Elizabeth McCarty 💍 1882/1092	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith none	26 20	Patea Patea	5 yrs 12 yrs	Mr Hugh McCarlys House at Patea	82/1015	Hugh McCarty Father	1 April 1882	Rev I. Jorry

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).