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 433

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
226	1 November 1882	Matthew Shaw Laurie Mary Ann Dew	Matthew Shaw Laurie Mary Ann Dew 💍 1882/2942	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	21 24	Wellington Do	years Do	Registrar's office	82/2837		1 November 1882	J. G. Holasworth
227	3 November 1882	Ernest Samuel Chedley Jane Laurie	Ernest Samuel Medley Jane Laurie 💍 1882/122	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 20	Do Do	Do Do	Registrar's office	82/2839	Jane Neldham, Mother	3 November 1882	J. G. Holasworth
228	6 November 1882	Thomas Henry Jane McPhee	Thomas Henry Jane McPhee 💍 1882/2949	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 20	Do Do	Do Do	Cricket Club Arms Hotel	82/2821	Malcolm McPhee, Father	6 November 1882	Rev James Paterson
229	6 November 1882	Thomas Beatty Annie Coward	Thomas Batty Annie Coward 💍 1882/2818	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	22 22	Do Do	1 month 5	Home of Rev R. Bavin	82/2865		6 November 1882	Rev. Rainsford Bavin
230	6 November 1882	John Edward Lloyd Annie Chidlow	John Edwards Lloyd Annie Chidlow 💍 1882/2944	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 28	Do Do	2 years 4 months	Registrar's office	82/2838		6 November 1882	J. G. Holasworth
231	7 November 1882	Henry Roberts Marion Jones	Henry Roberts Marion Jones 💍 1882/2817	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 22	Do Do	years Do	Home of Rev W. Bumber	82/2864		7 November 1882	Rev. W. Bumber
232	8 November 1882	Arthur Gyles Sarah Rebecca Brown	Arthur Gyles Sarah Rebecca Brown 💍 1882/2819	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 19	Do Do	Do Do	Home of the Rev W. Bumber, Ingestre Street	82/2866	Alfred Gyles Brown, Father	8 November 1882	Rev. W. Bumber
233	10 November 1882	George Luke Mary Alice Spencer	George Luke Mary Alice Spencer 💍 1882/2806	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	18 18	Do Do	Do Do	Mr. Prince's Home, Hopper Street	82/2854	Samuel Luke, Father Edmena Spencer, Father	10 November 1882	Rev. A. J. Smith
234	14 November 1882	Samuel Robinson Alicia Harriet Hill	Samuel Robinson Alicia Harriet Hill 💍 1882/2945	Bachelor Spinster	Manager	26 21	Do Do	14 days 1 week	Registrar's office	82/2840		14 November 1882	J. G. Holasworth
235	14 November 1882	Robert Haskell Angus Mary Anne Gigger	Robert Maskell August Mary Anne Gigger 💍 1882/2947	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Johnsonville Hawkins Road	10 weeks years	Registrar's office	82/2842		14 November 1882	J. G. Holasworth
236	15 November 1882	John Willoughby Comishall Anne Hadfield	John Willoughby Marshall Anne Hadfield 💍 1882/2835	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 24	Wellington Do	4 days years	St. Pauls	82/2858		15 November 1882	Rev. R. J. Thorpe
237	16 November 1882	Alexander Ryan Seep Harriet Annie Smith	Alexander Ryan Toop Harriett Annie Smith 💍 1882/3493	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 19	Do Do	years Do	Cathedral Home, Elizabeth Street	75581	Emma Smith, Mother	16 November 1882	Rev. H. B. Receiting

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).