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 416

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
61	11 March 1882	John M. Jntosh Jur Elizabeth Juckwell	John McIntosh Junr Jane Elizabeth Tuckwell 💍 1882/290	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 19	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	4 years 4 years	Registrar's office	82/315	John M. Jntosh, father added Brown, mother	11 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth Reg
62	11 March 1882	Samuel Lane Mahina Lungana	Samuel Lane Matilda Lingard 💍 1882/539	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 22	Wellington Wellington	[illegible] [illegible]	Home of Rev. N. B. Reastone	82/289	[illegible]	11 March 1882	N. B. Reastone United
63	16 March 1882	Alfred Henry Leevers Martha King	Alfred Henry Leevers Martha King 💍 1882/291	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 18	Wellington Wellington	[illegible] [illegible]	Registrar's office	82/316	George King, father	16 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth Reg
64	16 March 1882	William McGill Nutt Lucy Janet Gillespie	William McGill Nutt Lucy Janet Gillespie 💍 1882/535	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraph Linen [illegible]	38 21	[illegible] [illegible]	5 days [illegible] years	Shepherd Arms Hotel	82/285	[illegible]	16 March 1882	Rev. W. J. Obcan [illegible]
65	17 March 1882	Gustavus Beer Letitia Rence	Gustavus Beer Letitia Rance 💍 1882/509	Bachelor Widow	Photographer	23 28	[illegible] [illegible]	[illegible] months [illegible] years	Registrar's office	82/314	[illegible]	17 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth Reg
66	20 March 1882	Thomas Wainwright Susan Mercy Brown	Thomas Wainwright Susan Mercy Brown 💍 1882/557	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	26 21	Kaiwarra Wellington	15 months 4 years	St. Peter's Church	82/283	[illegible]	20 March 1882	[illegible] the Churchdeacon Stock [illegible]
67	20 March 1882	Richard Brown Sarah Elizabeth Gilbreath	Richard Brown Sarah Elizabeth Gilbrath 💍 1882/1256	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	21 21	[illegible] [illegible]	[illegible] years [illegible] years	Home of Mrs. Gilbreath Hopper Street	82/1093	[illegible]	20 March 1882	Rev. A. B. Mastor [illegible]
68	23 March 1882	James Frost Mary Ann Munro	James Frost Mary Ann Munro 💍 1882/520	Bachelor Widow	Barman	23 26	[illegible] [illegible]	[illegible] [illegible]	Registrar's office	82/318	[illegible]	23 March 1882	J. G. Holdsworth Reg
69	24 March 1882	Mark Biggs Mary Elizabeth Tilmartin	Mark Biggs Mary Elizabeth Martin 💍 1882/541	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	36 19	[illegible] [illegible]	1 week 2 years	Home of Mrs. Samuel Martin Pothills Gully	82/291	James Martin, father	24 March 1882	Rev. H. B. Reastone United
70	24 March 1882	Thomas Hutchinson Isabella Margaret Roupler	Thomas Hutchinson Hamer Isabella Margaret Rayner 💍 1882/547	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 18	Karori Karori	2 weeks 4 years	St. Mary's Church Karori	82/296	Jane Russell, mother	24 March 1882	Rev. Alexander Darent [illegible]
71	25 March 1882	Charles Thomas Gilson Sarah Maskell	Charles Thomas Gibson Sarah Marskell 💍 1882/542	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	[illegible] [illegible]	Home of Mrs. Coe, Dixon Street	82/292	[illegible]	25 March 1882	Rev. H. B. Reastone United
72	27 March 1882	John Shotter Annie Shotter	John Inston Annie Shotter 💍 1882/399	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30 27	Makara Makara	3 days 4 years	House of Mr. George Shotter Makara	82/271	[illegible]	27 March 1882	Rev. Alexander Darent [illegible]

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).