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 367

District of Wanganui 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
1	06 January 1882	Alexander Nair Janet Law Grias	Alexander Mair Janet Law Grieve 💍 1882/265 Alexander Leslie Janet Inglis 💍 1882/3419	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	29 20	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 6 mos.	Residence of the [illegible] Stratford		Agnes [illegible]	06 January 1882	Rev. James Toradishle
2	09 January 1882	Thomas Rosson Pointon Isabel Tompson	Thomas Rofson Pointon Isabel Simson 💍 1882/259	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	20 24	Wanganui Wanganui	8 mos. 10 days	Stoke Church of England, Patea	82/226		09 January 1882	Rev. M. Dassent
3	11 January 1882	Thomas Mackey Mary Ann Chalman	Thomas MacKey Mary Ann Chapman 💍 1882/280	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 36	Wanganui Wanganui	7 yrs. 33 yrs.	In the office of the Registrar	82/231		11 January 1882	J. H. Woon
4	19 January 1882	Robert Nixon Catherine Tracey	Edward Nixon Catherine Tracey 💍 1882/270	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 29	Wanganui Wanganui	2½ yrs. 7 yrs.	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/227		19 January 1882	Rev. S. H. Kick
5	27 January 1882	John Russde Colamound Stenste Kille		Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 25	Wanganui Wanganui	3½ yrs. 2½ yrs.	In the office of the Registrar	82/232		27 January 1882	J. H. Woon
6	04 February 1882	Robert McGregor Campbell Almarie Jardine Enles	Robert McGregor Campbell Almeria Caroline Surtees 💍 1882/263	Bachelor Spinster	Letter	29 30	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 6 mos.	In the Church of England, Marton			04 February 1882	Rev. T. L. Tudor
7	04 February 1882	Frederick Charles First Hickson Elizabeth Lee	Frederick Charles Smith Elizabeth Lee 💍 1882/283	Bachelor Spinster	Busholder	42 22	Wanganui Wanganui	8 wks. 6 mos.	In the office of the Registrar	82/234		04 February 1882	J. H. Woon
8	08 February 1882	Peter Herbert Wirtos Campbell Almarie Jardine Enles		Bachelor Spinster	Setter	29 30	Wanganui Wanganui	7 days 3 days	In the Church of England	82/235		08 February 1882	Rev. T. L. Tudor
9	08 February 1882	Euischhe Pence Rosina Sini		Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	31 22	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the office of the Registrar	82/233		08 February 1882	J. H. Woon
10	14 February 1882	Henry Feller Bessie Nicholson	Henry Pepper Bessie Nicholson 💍 1882/260	Bachelor Spinster	Restorer	23 23	Kai-iwi East-Fron	3 yrs. 1 wk.	In the office of the Registrar	82/235		14 February 1882	J. H. Woon
11	17 February 1882	James George Prynter Mary Elizabeth Birchall	James George Poynter Mary Elizabeth Birchall 💍 1882/264	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	21 26	Wanganui Wanganui	3 yrs. 16 yrs.	In the Church of England	P2295RK		17 February 1882	Rev. T. L. Tudor
12	23 February 1882	Albert James Rawston Annie Picach	Albert James Rawstron Annie Pickup 💍 1882/261	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 20	N.Z. [illegible] N.Z. [illegible]	18 mos. 8 yrs.	Of Marriages, Wanganui	N° 82/236		23 February 1882	J. H. Woon

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).