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 812

District of Kemura Quarter ending 30 June 1882 Registrar R. D. Laccuran

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
8	04 April 1882	David Jaylor Agnes M'Cullough	David Taylor Agnes McCullough 💍 1882/1905	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 21	Kemura Kemura	7 years 7 years	Residence of W. M'Cullough	82/1440		04 April 1882	D. Gordon Presbyterian
9	05 April 1882	Richard Hinch Mary Wright	Richard Hinch Mary Wright 💍 1882/1646	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 19	Rangitata Rangitata	4 months 8 years	Wesleyan	82/1457	H. Wright father	05 April 1882	Thos Lee Wesleyan
10	11 April 1882	Wm Fitzgerald Elizabeth Irvine	William Fitzgerald Elizabeth Irwin 💍 1882/1628	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 22	Arowhenua Arowhenua	14 years 3 years	Roman Catholic	82/1456		11 April 1882	Samuel R.C.
11	13 April 1882	Jas Christmas I. Mellianson	James Christmas Fanny Williamson 💍 1882/1625	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic Servant	24 21	Kemuda Kemuda	8 years 6 months	Church of England	82/1453		13 April 1882	Corelsh Church of England
12	23 May 1882	Albut Harrison Budget L. Jennings	Albert Harrison Bridget Louisa Jennings 💍 1882/1630	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	27 21	Kemura Kemura	1 year 3 years	Scotch Church	82/1458	Donus: Servant	23 May 1882	D. Gordon Presbyterian
13	25 May 1882	Donald Munay Mackay Robertas Paterson	Donald Murray MacKay Robertas Patterson 💍 1882/3617	Widower Spinster	Banker	38 30	Kemura Kemura	3 years 20 years	Residence of W.	82/1459		26 May 1882	D. Gordon Presbyterian
14	05 June 1882	James M'Neece Budget Juin		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 23	Kemura Kemura	5 years 4 years	Roman Catholic	82/1454		05 June 1882	Samuel R.C.
15	08 June 1882	James Benbow Alice H. Bishop	James Benbow Alice Harriet Bishop 💍 1882/1626	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 18	Kemuda Wuichester	14 years 15 years	Church of England	82/1454		09 June 1882	Welsh Church of England
16	08 June 1882	James Fratt Libeishalson Davidson	James Watts Lilias Wilson Davidson 💍 1882/1631	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 21	Kemura Kemura	8 years 9 years	residency of J.	82/1460		26 June 1882	D. Gordon Presbyterian
17	24 June 1882	James Frives Mary Bartlett	James Frires Mary Bartlett 💍 1882/1624	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 17	Mrchester Mrchester	4 years 2 years	Wesleyan church	82/1452		27 June 1882	Thos Lee Wesleyan

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).