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 425

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
134	05 July 1882	William Brothers Fitzgerold Elizabeth James	William Crothers Fitzgerald Elizabeth James 💍 1882/1979	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	32 19	Wellington Wellington	years	St. Marks Church	82/2536	William James, Father	05 July 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
135	10 July 1882	Joseph William Smith Adelaide Georgenia Powell	Joseph William Smith Adelaide Georgina Powell 💍 1882/2345	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 22	Wellington Wellington	7 months 1 week	Registrar's Office	82/1988		10 July 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
136	10 July 1882	Edward Arthur Knapp Laura Louise Bird	Edward Arthur Knapp Laura Louisa Bird 💍 1882/2353	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 18	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrar's Office	82/1990	Thomas Bird, Father	10 July 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
137	12 July 1882	John Stannox Catherine Chilnor	John Hancox Catherine Milner 💍 1882/1972 John Chaffe Catherine Brimner 💍 1882/1231	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	22 29	Wellington Wellington		Office	82/2030		12 July 1882	Rev. Ramsford Bevin
138	12 July 1882	Enoch Spencer Harriet Hitchens	Enock Spencer Harriet Hitchens 💍 1882/2352	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	22 21	Wellington Wellington		Registrar's Office	82/1989		12 July 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
139	13 July 1882	Frederick William Connell Mary Rea Williams	Frederick William Connell Mary Rose Williams 💍 1882/2354	Bachelor Spinster	Searcher	23 19	Horokini Valley Lower Hutt	5 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	82/1991	Henry W. Connell, Father	13 July 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
140	13 July 1882	Henry Bryant Letitia Munro	Henry Bryant Letitia Munro 💍 1882/2691	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 18	Chariot Valley Delta	year	St. Alban's Church	82/2541	John Munro, Father	13 July 1882	E. Paterson
141	17 July 1882	David William Foreman Annie Mason	David William Foreman Annie Mason 💍 1882/2440	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 19	Wellington Wellington	2 weeks	St. Marks Church	82/2529	Ann Lessington, Mother	17 July 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
142	17 July 1882	William Fryer Catherine Lawton	William Fryer Catherine Lawton 💍 1882/1986	Bachelor Spinster		24 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days	St. Peter's Church	82/2020	George Lawton, Father	17 July 1882	Ven. the Archdeacon Stock
143	17 July 1882	David Moncrieff Thomson Lucy Shaw	David Moncrieff Thomson Lucy Shaw 💍 1882/1974	Bachelor Spinster		33 25	Wellington Wellington	years	House of Mrs. Arthur Street	82/2031		17 July 1882	Rev. Ramsford Bevin
144	18 July 1882	Henry Woolls Annie Stringer	Henry Woods Annie Stringer 💍 1882/2355	Bachelor Spinster		22 24	Wellington Wellington		Registrar's Office	82/1992		18 July 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
145	24 July 1882	William Mason Emily Dell Seraffon	William Mason Emily Matilda Swafford 💍 1882/1981	Bachelor [illegible]	[illegible]	24 [illegible]	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt		St. James's Church	82/2015		21 July 1882	Rev. Thomas Fancourt

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).