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 432

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
214	17 October 1882	John Sinclair Julia Chason	John Sinclair Julia Mason 💍 1882/2712	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 19	Wellington Lower Hutt	4 years	Presbyterian Church Lower Hutt	82/3034	John August Chason, Father	17 October 1882	Rev. J. Paterson
215	20 October 1882	Edward Noble Fanny Esther Percy	Edward Noble Fanny Hester Percy 💍 1882/2940	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 24	Wellington Do	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	82/2835		20 October 1882	J. G. Stolanaugh
216	20 October 1882	Stephen Jones Hannah Harris	Stephen Jones Hannah Harris 💍 1882/2714	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Pahautanui Horokiri Valley	4 years	Presbyterian Church	82/3036	William Harris, Father	20 October 1882	Rev. J. Paterson
217	20 October 1882	Frederick Ashworth Death Rachel Jones	Frederick Ashburton Death Rachel Jones 💍 1882/2713	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Pahautanui Do		Presbyterian Church	82/3035		20 October 1882	Rev. J. Paterson
218	20 October 1882	Frederick James Penny Elizabeth Mary Luke	Frederick James Penny Elizabeth Mary Luke 💍 1882/2828	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 19	Wellington Do		Primitive Methodist Church	82/2852	Samuel Luke, Father	20 October 1882	Rev. A. J. Smith
219	20 October 1882	William Twiney Emily Jane Gascoyne	William Irving Emily Jane Gascoine 💍 1882/2812	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	32 20	Do Do		Rev. A. B. Chapman's House, Thompson Street	82/2800		20 October 1882	Rev. A. B. Chapman
220	23 October 1882	Charles Pettersson Anne Maria Hooke	Charles Petterson Anne Maria Hooke 💍 1882/3491	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 30	Do Do	1 year	House of Pettersson, Sydney Street	82/3499		23 October 1882	Rev. A. B. Reastone
221	25 October 1882	Charles Chrestie Minnie Watts	Charles Christie Minnie Watts 💍 1882/3492	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 21	Do Do	4 years	House of Chrestie, Tory Street	82/3500		25 October 1882	Rev. H. C. J. Nicholls
222	27 October 1882	Eli Allan Mary Ann Meryon	Eli Allen Mary Ann Morgan 💍 1882/2805	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Foxton Do		House of A. J. Smith, Sydney Street	82/2853		27 October 1882	Rev. A. J. Smith
223	30 October 1882	David Dow Agnes Symons	David Dow Agnes Symons 💍 1882/2943	Bachelor Spinster	Lighthouse Keeper	24 22	Wellington Do	3 days 4 years	House of Mr. Symons, Ingestre Street	82/2820		30 October 1882	Rev. John Moir
224	30 October 1882	Charles John Hill Alice Kimbrough	Charles John Hill Alice Kinniburgh 💍 1882/2816	Bachelor Spinster	Halter	27 21	Do Do		Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	82/2863		30 October 1882	Rev. W. Baumber
225	31 October 1882	Arthur Richard Wenman Pennefather Green Elizabeth Reid	Arthur W R T Green Elizabeth Reid 💍 1882/2831	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	24 20	Do Do		St. Mary's Cathedral, Hill Street	82/2804	Nicholas Reid, Father	31 October 1882	Rev. John McNamara

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).