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 435

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
250	2 December 1882	John Randal Forester Emily Marriot Cooper	John Randal Forster Pratt Emily Harriet Cooper 💍 1882/2837	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	25 27	Wellington Do	4 days years	St. Pauls	82/12810		4 December 1882	Rev. R. J. Thorpe
252	4 December 1882	Robens William Walpole Martine Chusthison	Robert William Walpole Martine Christisen 💍 1882/2822	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 17	Do Do	months years	Church	82/12846	Care Christisen, father	4 December 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
253	8 December 1882	Emil Hansen Elezabeth Mary Ann Hurles	Emil Hansen Elizabeth Mary Ann Hydes 💍 1882/2815	Bachelor Spinster	Book	24 23	Do Do	years Do	Registrar's office	82/12845		8 December 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
254	8 December 1882	Albert John Dentice Elicia Jane Phillips	Albert John Dentice Elicia Jane Phillips 💍 1882/3635	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	19 18	Do Do	Do Do	Registrar's office	82/13502	Leopold Dentice, father James Phillips, father	8 December 1882	Rev. 14. B. Reastone
255	9 December 1882	William Cook Langonet Connelly	William Cook Margaret Connelly 💍 1882/2823	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	35 30	Makara Do	15 months Do	Registrar's office	82/12847		9 December 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
256	11 December 1882	Charles William Shand Catherine Guickshank	Charles William Stuart Munro Catherine Cruickshank 💍 1882/2933 Charles William Rees Catherine Bradley 💍 1883/442	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	23 19	Wellington Upper Sturt	years Do	St. John's Church	82/12828	James Duff, father	11 December 1882	Rev. J. E. Blacklume
257	4 December 1882	Danvers Godden Honora Kathleen O'Sullivan	Danvers Godden Honora Kathleen O'Sullivan 💍 1882/2846	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	25 19	Do Do	years months	Cathedral	82/12818	Katherine Center, mother	4 December 1882	Rev. R. Coffey
257	11 December 1882	Henry Sanson Jun. Starriet Bent		Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	27 27	Hutt Do	3 days years	Honey Church	82/12855		11 December 1882	Rev. W. Cannell
258	11 December 1882	James Rydeucheno Helena Maina effort	James Ryder Moore Helena Maria Steffert 💍 1882/2810	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 26	Wellington Do	years Do	St. Peter's Church	82/12858	Henry Christian Sieffert, father	11 December 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
259	12 December 1882	Thomas Billinge Nina Madeline Anscorck	Thomas Billings Maclean Nina Madeline Badcock 💍 1882/2838	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders	30 26	Do Do	3 days years	St. Pauls	82/12811		12 December 1882	Rev. R. J. Thorpe
260	13 December 1882	George Arthur Reakin Mary Ann Fraser	George Arthur Deakin Mary Ann Fraser 💍 1882/2843	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 30	Do Do	Do Do	Cathedral	82/12815		13 December 1882	Rev. L. S. Bag
261	19 December 1882	Thomaschion Grant Sophia Dawson	Thomas Muir Grant Sophia Dawson 💍 1882/2717	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	24 25	Do Do	Do Do	St. John's Church	82/13038		19 December 1882	It. F. Hygate

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).