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 412

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
13	11 January 1882	William Thomas Alton Martha Ann Martin	William Thomas Alton Martha Ann Martin 💍 1882/536	Bachelor Spinster	Forward	22 22	Wellington Wellington	4 days 2 years	St. Mark's Church, Newtown	82/266		11 January 1882	Rev. N. B. Redstone
14	14 January 1882	William Wyinks Ada Georgina Gillon	William Wyinks Ada Georgina Gillon 💍 1882/395	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 29	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 year	Cathedral	82/268		14 January 1882	Rev. John Mackay
15	16 January 1882	John Holes Mary Pickett	John Holes Mary Pickett 💍 1882/293 Joseph Hughes Mary Pickett 💍 1882/3576	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	26 21	Wellington Wellington	5 days	Registrar's Office	82/303		16 January 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
16	16 January 1882	Ina Clarke Mary Jane Dolton	Ina Clarke Mary Jane Dalton 💍 1882/529	Widower Spinster	Gardener	35 26	Wellington Wellington	6 weeks	St. Mary of the Angels	82/321		16 January 1882	Rev. P. Kenyan
17	16 January 1882	Adolph William John Filke Mary Ellen Edmonds	Adolph William John Cook Mary Ellen Edwards 💍 1882/549	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 18	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	St. Mark's	82/298	William Edmonds Father	16 January 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
18	16 January 1882	Augustus John Devine Minnie de Stoceney	Augustus John Cousins Minnie McSweeney 💍 1882/294	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	25 24	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	Registrar's Office	82/304		16 January 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
19	16 January 1882	Charles Mackintosh Ross Mary Isabella Dowdeswell	Charles MacKintosh Ross Mary Isabella Dowdescell 💍 1882/517	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	30 23	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	Congregational Church, Vivian Street	82/333		16 January 1882	Rev. W. H. West
20	17 January 1882	Louis Charles Roskruge Alice Elizabeth Hunt	Louis Charles Roskruge Alice Elizabeth Hunt 💍 1882/550	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	24 20	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	St. March	82/299	Ebenezer Henry Hunt Father	17 January 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
21	15 January 1882	Joseph Devon Sustin Jane Learly	Joseph Dixon Tustin Jane Loasley 💍 1882/401	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 19	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	Wesley Church, Saramaki Street	82/273	Barbara Learly Mother	17 January 1882	Rev. Raine Ford Bavin
22	18 January 1882	Charles Clement William Jane Eliza Ward	Charles Edward Williams Jessie Eliza Ward 💍 1882/553	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	27 18	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	St. Peters	82/279	Mary Ward Lancaster Mother	18 January 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
23	19 January 1882	Mark Mayston Elizabeth Finney	Mark Maxton Elizabeth Tinney 💍 1882/392	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	28 32	Wellington Wellington	[illegible]	Willis Street	82/265		19 January 1882	Rev. B. W. Harvey
24	20 January 1882	John McEwen Annie Sanson	John McEwen Annie Sanson 💍 1882/515	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 18	Pahautanui Pahautanui	4 years	Home of Rev	82/331	No Relation in Colony	3 February 1882	Rev. James Paterson

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).