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 411

District of Wellington 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	3 January 1882	George Henry Palmer Emma Tare	George Henry Palmer Emma Tarr 💍 1882/544	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 20	Wellington Karori	3 days years	St. Marys	82/294	James Brock, Father	3 January 1882	Rev. W. Ballachey
2	3 January 1882	James Furniss Caroline Elizabeth Davies	James Furness Caroline Elizabeth Davies 💍 1882/548	Bachelor Spinster	Bottler	21 18	Wellington "	" "	St. Marks	82/297	Caroline Guthrie, Mother	3 January 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
3	3 January 1882	William Binting Elizabeth Helena Rooney	William Bunting Elizabeth Helena Rooney 💍 1882/528	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 28	" "	" "	St. Andrews	82/320	[illegible]	3 January 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan
4	4 January 1882	James King Jessie Ross	James King Jessie Ross 💍 1882/510	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	36 33	" "	" "	St. John's	82/[illegible]	[illegible]	4 January 1882	Rev. James Patterson
5	4 January 1882	Peter Comfort Mary Ann Boarden	Peter Cornfoot Mary Ann Boarden 💍 1882/551	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 21	" "	" "	Upper Willis St.	82/326	[illegible]	4 January 1882	W. E. Wyatt, Depy.
6	5 January 1882	Adolph Julius Gerliner Mary Lyons	Adolph Julius Swanson Mary Lyons 💍 1882/389	Widower Spinster	Seaman	49 40	" "	" "	St. Paul's	82/[illegible]	[illegible]	5 January 1882	Rev. B. C. Harvey
7	5 January 1882	George Thomas John Barker Jane Maxwell	George Thomas John Barnes Jane Maxwell 💍 1882/545	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	22 22	" "	" "	Cathedral	82/1262	[illegible]	5 January 1882	Ven. the Archdeacon Stock
8	7 January 1882	Thomas Howarth Margaret Annie Maxwell	Thomas Howarth Margaret Annie Maxwell 💍 1882/552	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	" "	" "	St. Peters	82/1247	[illegible]	7 January 1882	Ven. the Archdeacon Stock
9	9 January 1882	Edward Suhrmann Edith Emily Johnston	Edward Fuhrmann Clarke Edith Emily Johnston 💍 1882/391	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Engineer	24 23	" "	" "	St. Pauls	82/1248	[illegible]	7 January 1882	Right Rev. Bishop of Wellington
10	10 January 1882	Alexander Chisholm Emma Allen	Alexander Chisholm Emma Allen 💍 1882/390	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	31 26	" "	" "	Cathedral	82/1264	[illegible]	9 January 1882	Rev. B. W. Harvey
11	10 January 1882	William Jupp Louisa Stephens	William Jupp Louisa Stephens 💍 1882/295	Bachelor Spinster	Turner	21 18	" "	4 days years	Ripxxx Office	82/305	No Relation in Colony	24 January 1882	W. E. Wyatt, Depy.
12	10 January 1882	John Browther Martha Johnson	John Crowther Martha Johnson 💍 1882/284	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	23 21	" "	"	Registrar's Office	82/301	[illegible]	10 January 1882	J. G. Holsworth, Regr.

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).