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 0429

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
182	11 September 1882	Thomas Leonard Adams Mary Jane Scholes	Thomas Leonard Adams Mary Jane Scholes 💍 1882/1970	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	26 22	Wellington Lower Hutt	4 days years	Mr John Scholes	82/2028		11 September 1882	Rev. W. Connell
183	11 September 1882	George Bland Lydia Thornton Woolf	George Blane Lydia Shenton Woolf 💍 1882/2343	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 21	Wellington ""	2 weeks 3 weeks	Registrar's Office	82/2004		11 September 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
184	11 September 1882	William Edward Lund Eliza Jane Topping	William Edward Moore Eliza Jane Topping 💍 1882/2442	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 24	"" ""	12 months years	St Mark's Church	82/2531		11 September 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
185	12 September 1882	John Campbell Isabella Nicol Anderson	John Campbell Isabella Nichol Anderson 💍 1882/2842	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 20	"" ""	year ""	House yellow	82/2814	James Anderson Father	12 September 1882	Rev. C. S. Eigg
186	12 September 1882	Henry Punches Ellen Laing	Henry Purches Ellen Laing 💍 1882/2342	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21	"" ""	"" ""	Registrar's Office	82/2003		12 September 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
187	13 September 1882	Thomas William Bridget O'Sullivan	Thomas Williams Bridget OSullivan 💍 1882/2237	Bachelor Spinster	Cab Driver	22 22	"" ""	"" ""	St Mary's Church	82/2223		13 September 1882	Rev. John McNamara
188	13 September 1882	Niels Rasmussen Clara Emily Dudley	Niels Rasmussen Clara Emma Dudley 💍 1882/1968	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	34 23	"" ""	"" ""	St Peter's Church	82/2024		13 September 1882	Rev. Archdeacon Stock
189	14 September 1882	Philip Schumacher Emily Keziah Housego	Philip Schumacher Emily Keziah Honsego 💍 1882/2344	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 23	"" ""	14 days months	Registrar's Office	82/2005		14 September 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
190	15 September 1882	William Thomas Elizabeth Jackman	William Thomas Hildreth Elizabeth Jackman 💍 1882/1977	Bachelor Spinster	Marine Store Dealer	25 19	Helsworth ""	years 2 months	Home or elsewhere Alpha Shed	82/2034	Thomas Jackman Father	15 September 1882	Rev. Rainford Bavin
191	15 September 1882	Patrick O'Shea Annie Dalton	Patrick OShea Annie Dalton 💍 1882/1856	Bachelor Spinster	Collector	31 21	"" ""	years ""	St Mary of the Angels	82/1985		15 September 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan
192	16 September 1882	Daniel Daly Agnes Hall	Daniel Daly Agnes Hill 💍 1882/2346	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	43 40	"" ""	6 months 4	Registrar's Office	82/2006		16 September 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
193	19 September 1882	William Broughton Mariah Dermott	William Broughton Ateria Hanwaho 💍 1882/1473	Bachelor Spinster	Umbrella Maker	23 27	"" ""	6 ""	St Mary of the Angels	82/1986		19 September 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan

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).