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 1144

District of Cromwell Quarter ending 30th day of 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
153	06 April 1882	John Isaac Whitter Eliza Jane Geer	John Isaac Whitten Eliza Jane Geer 💍 1882/1664	Bachelor Spinster	Boot Maker	25 15	Cromwell Quartzville	17 years 7 years	at the Residence of Mr Cardine A. Whitter	82/1667	Ann Geer Mother of Minor	11 April 1882	The Reverend James Blackie Presbyterian
154	25 April 1882	Frederick Chr. Denham Annie Todd	Fred Charles Denham Annie Todd 💍 1882/1885	Bachelor Spinster	Coach driver -	37 19	Cromwell Bendigo	5 years 7 years	In the Catholic Church	82/1672	Charles Todd Father of Minor	26 April 1882	The Reverend Patrick O'Leary Roman Catholic
155	28 April 1882	James Pennycuick Josephine M.Mahon	James Pennycruick Josephine McMahon 💍 1882/1883	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	24 21	Mt. Pisa Station Lowburn, near Cromwell	18 months 6 months	at the residence of Mr Martin - Henny-Lowburn	82/1670		28 April 1882	The Revd. Jas. Blackie Presbyterian
156	03 June 1882	William Olds Mary Smith	William Olds Mary Smith 💍 1882/1865 William Allen Mary Smith 💍 1882/1350 William Clues Emily Smith 💍 1883/90 William Laing Marian Smith 💍 1882/1686 William Pollard Jane Smith 💍 1882/3400 William Williams Emma Smith 💍 1882/2247	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher -	43 38	The Pound near Cromwell near Cromwell	5 years 2 weeks	The Pound near Cromwell	82/1668		03 June 1882	The Revd. James Blackie Presbyterian
157	19 June 1882	Bonaventura de Bettineor Porscilla Murrell	Boaventure de Bettencor Priscilla Murrell 💍 1882/1884	Widower Spinster	Miner Music Teacher	43 37	5 mile Creek, new Lowburn Cromwell		In the Church of England	82/1671		19 June 1882	The Revd. Geoffrey Fynmore Clinton
158	27 June 1882	Adam Aitken Amelia Jane Angel	Adam Aitken Amilia Jane Angel 💍 1882/1876	Bachelor Spinster	Miner -	36 21	Bannockburn Bannockburn		at the residence of Mr Adam Aitken Bannockburn	82/1669		27 June 1882	The Revd. James Blackie Presbyterian

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).