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 558

District of Motueka Quarter ending 30 June 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
317	12 May 1882	Ernst Otto Friedrich von Peder Annie Leech	Ernst Otto Friedrich Von Reden Annie Leech 💍 1882/2282	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Schoolmistress	29 28	Motueka Motueka	5 days 14 years	St. Thomas Church, Motueka	82/2094		12 May 1882	Rev. Samuel Poole Minister C. of E.
318	22 May 1882	James Eginton Annie Mary Jane Jordan	James Eginton Annie Mary Jane Jordon 💍 1882/2281	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	21 18	Motueka Motueka	21 years 9 years	House of Mr. Mark Hyland, Motueka	82/2093	Mary Jane Hyland Mother	22 May 1882	Rev. William Kirk, Wesleyan Minister
319	30 May 1882	John Rowling Eliza Crickton	John Rowling Eliza Crichton 💍 1882/1316	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	24 24	Riwaka Motueka	24 years 24 years	House of Mr. Thomas Evens, Pangatotara	82/1205	Motueka	30 May 1882	Rev. Samuel Poole elect. Minister Ch. of England
320	02 June 1882	George Painter Elizabeth Beardmore	George Painter Elizabeth Beardmore 💍 1882/1315	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	37 21	Motueka Motueka	37 years 3 days	House of Mr. Joseph Thorn, Motueka	82/1204		02 June 1882	Rev. Samuel Poole elect, Minister Ch. of England
321	15 June 1882	James William Fry Isabella Fowler	James William Fry Isabella Fowler 💍 1882/1318	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Riwaka Riwaka	25 years 21 years	St Thomas' Church, Motueka	82/1207		15 June 1882	Rev. Samuel Poole elect. Minister Ch. of England
322	17 June 1882	John Wendleborn Lois Swann	John Wendelborn Lois Swann 💍 1882/1317	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic Servant	26 24	Motueka Riwaka	6 months 24 years	St. Thomas' Church, Motueka	82/1206		17 June 1882	Rev. Samuel Poole elect. Minister Ch. of England
323	21 June 1882	Heinrich Hermann Ludwig Bosselmann Sophia Maria Dorothea Duval		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	35 27	Moutere Moutere	1 month 3 months	Lutheran Church, Upper Moutere	82/1218		21 June 1882	Rev. Hermann Wilhelm Howert. Lutheran minister
324	22 June 1882	Graham Brougham Charlotte Harford	Graham Brougham Charlotte Annie Harford 💍 1882/1319	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 18	Moutere Moutere	24 years 4 years	House of Mr. B. Harford Lower Moutere	82/1208	B. Harford Father Lower Moutere	22 June 1882	Revd. Samuel Poole elect. Minister Ch. of England

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).