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 420

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 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
91	24 April 1882	James Thomas Bedford Mary Cummings	James Thomas Bedford Mary Cummings 💍 1882/1163	Widower Widow	Smith	49 35	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrar's Office	82/1110		24 April 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
92	3 May 1882	Andrew Wylie Martha France Bean	Andrew Wylie Martha Frances Brown 💍 1882/1164	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	22 20	Wellington Wellington		Registrar's Office	82/1116	Anthera Bean, Father	3 May 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
93	3 May 1882	John Edward Apton Jane Davenport	John Edward Upton Jane Devenport 💍 1882/1144	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	27 22	Wellington Wellington		House of Rev. A. J. Smith, Sydney Street	82/1107		3 May 1882	Rev. A. J. Smith
94	3 May 1882	Alfred Haney Dryden Alice Jemima Barcand	Alfred Sidney Dryden Alice Jemima Baseand 💍 1882/1268	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	27 22	Wellington Wellington		House of Mr. Dryden, Inmanaki Street	82/1104		3 May 1882	Rev. Rainsford Bain
95	6 May 1882	Peter Worston Mahida Hunt	Peter Wootton Matilda Hunt 💍 1882/1277	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Karori Wellington	15 months years	St. Paul's	82/1090		6 May 1882	Ven. ble Archdeacon Thorpe
96	6 May 1882	S. Clare Evelyn Liard Lydia Frances Cooley	St Clare Evelyn Liardet Lydia Frances Cooley 💍 1882/1276	Bachelor Spinster	Working Naturalist	40 25	Wellington Wellington		Cathedral, St. Paul's	82/1089		6 May 1882	The Bishop of Wellington
97	8 May 1882	James Sharpe Deucher Edith Laura Norrocks	James Sharp Deuchar Edith Laura Horrocks 💍 1882/1165	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 28	Wellington Wellington	1 week	Registrar's Office	82/1125		8 May 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
98	9 May 1882	Peter Wright Telford Phoebe Bannister	Peter Wright Telford Phoebe Bannister 💍 1882/1166	Bachelor Spinster	Share Broker	42 34	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrar's Office	82/1113		9 May 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
99	11 May 1882	Edward Anderson Elizabeth Annie	Edward Anderson Elizabeth Anne Millward 💍 1882/1267 John Anderson Elizabeth Stacey 💍 1882/2211	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Milliner	37 25	Wellington Wellington		St. Peter's Church	82/1103		11 May 1882	Ven. ble Archdeacon Stock
100	12 May 1882	George William Erwart Mary Agnes Grace	George William Ewart May Agnes Grace 💍 1882/1167	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	28 25	Wellington Wellington		Registrar's Office	82/1114		12 May 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
101	17 May 1882	Thomas Henry Tavilran Ellen Jarrett	Thomas Henry Fairbrass Ellen Jarrott 💍 1882/1272	Bachelor Widow	Fellmonger	31 42	Johnsonville Johnsonville		House of Rev. J. Paterson	82/1085		17 May 1882	Rev. J. Paterson
102	17 May 1882	John Crawford Agnes Farley	John Crawford Agnes Farrley 💍 1882/1168 John Crawford Sarah Birket 💍 1883/225	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 21	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Registrar's Office	82/1115		17 May 1882	J. G. Holdsworth

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).