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 413

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
25	21 January 1882	Edwin Godber Leah Eades	Edwin Godber Leah Eades 💍 1882/402	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 20	Wellington Lower Hutt	4 years 14	House of Mr James Godber	82/1244	William Eades, Father	21 January 1882	Rev. Ransford Bavin
26	25 January 1882	Joseph Swann Jane Wallace	Joseph Swan Jane Wallace 💍 1882/512	Bachelor Spinster	Smith	34 27	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	House of Mr A. Wallace	82/1328		25 January 1882	Rev. James Paterson
27	25 January 1882	Edward Ness Margaret Buchanan	Edward Ness Margaret McMahon 💍 1882/396	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 24	Karwarra Karwarra	4 years 14 years	St. Mary's	82/1269		25 January 1882	Rev. John Mc Namara
28	25 January 1882	George Ernest Simmonds Jessie Venn	George Ernest Simmonds Jessie Venn 💍 1882/393	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	27 23	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 years	St. Pauls	82/1266		25 January 1882	Rev. B.W. Harvey
29	25 January 1882	Michael Stack Johanna Brennan	Michael Stack Johanna Brennan 💍 1882/530	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Mary of the Angels	82/1322		25 January 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan
30	28 January 1882	John Stunter Marion Campbell	John Hunter Marion Campbell 💍 1882/296	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	39 39	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	Registrar's Office	82/1306		28 January 1882	J.G. Holdsworth
31	1 February 1882	John Rixon Caroline Hempton	John Rixon Caroline Humphry 💍 1882/513	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	37 34	Wellington Wellington	6 days 4 years	House of Rev?	82/1329		1 February 1882	Rev. James Paterson
32	31 January 1882	James Smale Frances Emma Read	James Smale Frances Emma Reed Gynn 💍 1882/514	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days 5 days	House of Rev	82/1330		31 January 1882	[illegible]
33	1 February 1882	Arthur Rickards Catherine Letitia	Arthur Rickards Catherine Letitia Mason 💍 1882/297	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	29 26	Wellington Wellington	6 weeks 4 months	Registrar's Office	82/1307	Thomas Mason	1 February 1882	J.G. Holdsworth
34	1 February 1882	Thomas Sanwarm Emily Dawson	Thomas Lauvarien Emma Dawson 💍 1882/537	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	21 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr Dawson	82/1289	William Dawson	1 February 1882	Rev. H.B. Reastone
35	1 February 1882	William Thomas Collerton Ellen Donough	William Thomas Collerton Ellen Donough 💍 1882/554	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	29 29	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Peters	82/1280		1 February 1882	Ven Archdeacon Stock
36	6 February 1882	George Andrews Margaret Sullivan	George Andrews Margaret Sullivan 💍 1882/398 Michael Riordan Margaret Sullivan 💍 1882/3012	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	32 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 1 year	St. Mary's Cathedral	82/1270		6 February 1882	Rev. John Mc Namara

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).