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 375

District of Wanganui Quarter ending [illegible]

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
62	02 October 1882	Christie Wilson Mary Brown Nathan	Christie Wilson Mary Brown Nathan 💍 1882/2774	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	20 17	Wanganui Wanganui	3 yrs. 17 yrs.	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2737	W. Nathan, Father	18 October 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
63	03 October 1882	Patrick Pett Annie Taste Rackett		Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 18	Wanganui Wanganui	26 yrs. 18 yrs.	In the English Church	82/2914	Taste Rackett, Mother	03 October 1882	Rev. T. L. Tudor Church of England
64	12 October 1882	John William Farmer Susan Sandilands	John William Garner Susan Campbell 💍 1882/3093	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer -	24 22	Kaitoke Fordell	20 yrs. 5 yrs.	In the English Church	82/2915		12 October 1882	Rev. T. L. Tudor Church of England
65	12 October 1882	Charles Carroll Eliza Paul	Charles Carrel Eliza Paul 💍 1882/2772	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	28 22	Wanganui Wanganui	3 yrs. 3 yrs.	In the residence of Charles	82/2741		12 October 1882	Rev. W. J. Williams Wesleyan
66	19 October 1882	Thomas Messiter Jane Cochran	Thomas Messiter Jane Corkran 💍 1882/2775	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	23 22	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs. 7 days	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2774		19 October 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
67	23 October 1882	Allan Robinson Mary Ellis	Allan Robinson Mary Ellis 💍 1882/2776	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2775		23 October 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
68	30 October 1882	Absalom Smith Annie Blute	Alfred Smith Annie Blyth 💍 1882/2972	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	25 24	Wanganui No. 1 Line	4 days 10 yrs.	In the residence of Mr. R.	82/2768		30 October 1882	Rev. Jas. Treadwell Presbyterian
69	07 November 1882	John Fraser Ann Signal	John Fraser Ann Signal 💍 1882/2777	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	23 20	Wanganui Wanganui	12 mths. 6 mths.	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2770		07 November 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
70	16 November 1882	Peter McKinnon Selina Townsend	Peter McKinnon Selina Townsend 💍 1882/2778	Bachelor Spinster	Barber	70 20	Wanganui Wanganui	7 1/2 yrs. 20 yrs.	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2777		08 November 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
71	17 November 1882	Robert Saunther Rebecca Davis	Robert Carruthers Rebecca Davis 💍 1882/2755	Widower Spinster	Setter	54 38	Wanganui Wanganui	17 yrs. 13 mths.	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2778		19 November 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
72	25 November 1882	James Phillips Margaret Stott	James Phillips Margaret Stark 💍 1882/2756	Widower Widow	Labourer	77 25	Wanganui Wanganui	9 yrs. 7 mths.	In the Office of the Registrar	82/2779		25 November 1882	J. H. Moore Registrar
73	27 November 1882	James Young Anna Kidd	James Corry Anne Kidd 💍 1882/2754	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 19	Brunswick Kai-iwi	5 yrs. 15 yrs.	In the residence of Mr. R.	82/2769		27 November 1882	Rev. James Treadwell Presbyterian

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).