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 415

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
49	28 February 1882	George Frederick George Arcilena Goss	George Frederick George Merlina Goss 💍 1882/546	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 23	Karori Karori	years years	S. Mary's Church, Karori	82/295		28 February 1882	Rev. Alexander Barraud
50	1 March 1882	George Nicolas Brooks Sarah Ann Barber	George Nicolas Brooks Sarah Ann Barber 💍 1882/516	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	27 17	Wellington Wellington	. .	House of [illegible] Binham Street	82/352	Mary Coe, Mother	1 March 1882	Rev. James Paterson
51	1 March 1882	James McGinity Mary Ashton	James McGinity Mary Ashton 💍 1882/285	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 21	[illegible] [illegible]	. .	Registrar's Office	82/310		1 March 1882	Mr. S. Myatt, Depy
52	2 March 1882	Edward George Brazier Barbara Cullen	Edward George Brasier Barbara Cullen 💍 1882/286	Bachelor Spinster	Basket Maker	29 22	[illegible] [illegible]	. .	Registrar's Office	82/311		2 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth, Regr.
53	4 March 1882	Francis James Webber Mary Holmes	Francis James Webber Fear Mary Holmes 💍 1882/534	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 22	[illegible] [illegible]	year .	House of Mrs. I. Holmes, Frederick Street	82/276		4 March 1882	Rev. William Kirk, [illegible]
54	6 March 1882	William Benton Harriet Sayler	William Burton Harriet Taylor 💍 1882/287 William Underdown Harriet Mellon 💍 1882/449	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 29	[illegible] [illegible]	. .	Registrar's Office	82/312		6 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth, Regr.
55	6 March 1882	William Heuland Caroline Whitford	William Harland Hickson Caroline Whitford 💍 1882/288	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	32 22	[illegible] [illegible]	. year	Registrar's Office	82/313		6 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth, Regr.
56	6 March 1882	David Rayne Wright Emily Trevor	David Rayne Wright Emily Trevor 💍 1882/540	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	23 21	[illegible] Ohirio	4 months 4 months	Mr. J. Trevor's Home, Combiney Place	82/290		6 March 1882	Rev. H. B. Reastone, [illegible]
57	6 March 1882	Ashton Braddle Fielder Laura Sophia Walker	Ashton Buddle Fitchett Laura Sophia Walters 💍 1882/543	Widower Spinster	Dairyman	35 22	[illegible] [illegible]	2 years .	House of Rev. John Muir, Woolcombe Street	82/293		6 March 1882	Rev. John Muir
58	7 March 1882	Charles Carter Hannah Sophia [illegible]	Charles Carter Hannah Sophia Stace 💍 1882/394	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 22	Pahautanui [illegible]	. .	St. Paul's Cathedral	82/267		7 March 1882	Ven. H. Archdeacon Stock
59	8 March 1882	Daniel Thomas King Mary Jane Ingley	Daniel Thomas King Mary Jane Bagley 💍 1882/521	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 24	Te Aro Flat Porirua	. .	Rev. D. Button's Residence, Sydney Street	82/336		8 March 1882	Rev. Daniel Button
60	8 March 1882	John Graham Jennet Barbara Rooney	John Graham Janet Barbara Rooney 💍 1882/289	Bachelor Spinster	Freeman	35 24	Wellington [illegible]	. 6 months	Registrar's Office	82/314		8 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth, 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).