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 414

District of Wellington Quarter ending [illegible]

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
37	06 February 1882	Peter Anthony Disch Catherine Boyle	Peter Antony Disch Catherine Boyle 💍 1882/531	Bachelor Spinster	Meinom	47 32	Wellington Do	[illegible] years Do	St. Mary of the Angels	82/323		06 February 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan
38	14 February 1882	John Ryan Norah Healy	John Ryan Nora Healy 💍 1882/532	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Do Do	Do Do	St. Mary of the Angels	82/324		14 February 1882	Do
39	16 February 1882	John William Mandell Caroline Inch	John William Mardell Caroline Finch 💍 1882/519	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 29	Do Do	[illegible] months 2 years	Emond Purchill Methodist Church	82/335		16 February 1882	Rev. Daniel Dutton
40	16 February 1882	John Joseph Magpole Mary Mackey	John Joseph Stagpool Mary Mackey 💍 1882/533	Weaver Spinster	Baker	29 30	Do Do	4 years Do	St. Mary of the Angels	82/325		16 February 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan
41	18 February 1882	Samuel Williams Louisa Meredith	Samuel Vernon Louisa Meredith 💍 1882/538	Bachelor Spinster	Cab Driver	21 19	Do Do	Do Do	House of Rev. H. B. Reastone	82/288	No Relation in Colony	18 February 1882	Rev. H. B. Reastone
42	18 February 1882	John Andrew Miller Sarah Lillian Ross	John Andrew Millar Sarah Lilian Rop 💍 1882/555	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 23	Do Do	10 days Do	St. Peter's Church	82/281		18 February 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
43	21 February 1882	James Hay Ruth Mary Leighton	James Hay Ruth Mary Leighton 💍 1882/518	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	31 25	Do Do	Do Do	House of Rev. W. H. West, Glenburvie Terrace	82/334		21 February 1882	Rev. W. H. West
44	23 February 1882	William Alfred Carter Selina Brown	William Alfred Carter Selina Brown 💍 1882/403 William Broad Thorpe Helen Brown 💍 1882/2540	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 23	Pahantanui Wellington	Do Do	Wesleyan Church, Manners Street	82/245		23 February 1882	Rev. Rainford Bervin
45	24 February 1882	Joseph Andrew Emma Arnold	Joseph Andrews Emma Arnold 💍 1882/556	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	20 22	Do Do	Do Do	St. Peter's Church	82/282	Catherine M. A. Hanson, Mother	24 February 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
46	24 February 1882	Henry William Houghlin Mary Danielle	Henry Wilson O'Loughlin Mary Daniels 💍 1882/298	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	33 38	Do Wellington	2 months Do	Registrar's Office, Wellington	82/308		26 February 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
47	27 February 1882	Louis Morris Henrietta Parker	Louis Morris Henrietta Parker 💍 1882/299	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	27 17	Do Do	[illegible] years Do	Registrar's Office	82/309	Mary Ann Allan, Mother	27 February 1882	Do
48	27 February 1882	James William Patie Jane Gordon	James William Batie Jane Gordon 💍 1882/1490	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Smith	25 23	Norokuvi Road Norokuvi Road	Do Do	House of Mr Gordon	82/1079		27 February 1882	Rev. C. S. Ogg

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).