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 428

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
170	28 August 1882	James June Margaret Jane Wells	James Moore Margaret June Wells 💍 1882/2337	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Kaiwarra Wellington	1 month years	Registrar's Office	82/1998		28 August 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
171	30 August 1882	Edward Meek Rebecca Pennington	Edward Meek Rebecca Rennington 💍 1882/1966	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	24 22			St. Peter's Church	82/2024		30 August 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
172	30 August 1882	William Thos. Flack Ellen Simson	William John Flack Ellen Stinson 💍 1882/2338	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	25 22		1 month 2 years	Registrar's Office	82/1999		30 August 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
173	30 August 1882	James O'Fenhaty Agnes Conway	James O'Flaherty Agnes Conway 💍 1882/2339	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	26 25		4 years	Registrar's Office	82/2000		30 August 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
174	31 August 1882	Edwin Thomas Taylor Emma Watson	Edwin Thomas Taylor Emma Watson 💍 1882/2444	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 17			St. Mark's Church	82/2533	Maria Watson, Mother	31 August 1882	Rev. Richard Coffey
175	31 August 1882	Robert James Kells Mary Ann Page	Robert James Kells Mary Ann Page 💍 1882/1965	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 24	30 R. Parina Road Wellington	6 months years	St. Peter's Church	82/2023		31 August 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
176	2 September 1882	John Campbell Catherine ch. Akea	John Campbell Catherine McAtea 💍 1882/2341 John Campbell Isabella Nichol Anderson 💍 1882/2842 John Campbell Mary Driscole 💍 1882/3344 John Campbell Kate Emma Dusten 💍 1882/1928 John Campbell Jane McElroy 💍 1882/2531	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 22		4 years	Registrar's Office	82/2002		2 September 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
177	4 September 1882	Thomas Clark Jenkins Annie Hay	Thomas Clarke Jenkins Annie Hay 💍 1882/1967	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 23		4 weeks	St. Peter's Church	82/2025		4 September 1882	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
178	4 September 1882	Richard Wyclian Mary Alice Kenny	Richard William Hugh Mary Alice Kenny 💍 1882/1855	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	21 27		4 years	St. Mary of the Angels	82/1984		4 September 1882	Rev. P. Kerrigan
179	5 September 1882	Nils Peter Olsen Wilhelmine Baucke	Nils Peter Olson Wilhelmine Baucke 💍 1882/1976	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	33 23	Wellington Wellington	1 month years	Mr. Olsen's House, Taranaki Street	82/2033		5 September 1882	Rev. Rainsford Bavin
180	9 September 1882	Arthur Gilbert Esther Salmons	Arthur Gilbert Esther Salmons 💍 1882/2348	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 17	Chario	years	Registrar's Office	82/2008	Henry Salmons, Father	9 September 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
181	9 September 1882	Edward Smith Mary Knight	Edward Smith Mary Knight 💍 1882/1980	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Sturt	7 days years	Mr. Henry Knight's House	82/2014		9 September 1882	Rev. William Grant

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).