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 436

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
262	20 December 1882	Alexander McCulloch Evelyn Mildred Ransom	Alexander McCulloch Evelyn Mildred Ransom 💍 1882/2808	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Silver Stream, Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	Ransoms	82/2856		20 December 1882	Rev. W. Carmell
263	20 December 1882	William Woollett Elizabeth McGregor	William Fraser Margaret McGregor 💍 1883/539 William Pegden Margaret McGregor 💍 1882/1058	Widower Spinster	Engine Driver	29 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	House & Red	82/2816	Agnes Davidson, mother	21 December 1882	Rev. C. G. Ogg
264	21 December 1882	Frederick George Thirkell Emily Elizabeth Berry	Frederick George Thirkell Emily Elizabeth Berry 💍 1882/2950	Bachelor Spinster	Gas Fitter	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House & Red	82/2822		21 December 1882	Rev. John Muir
265	22 December 1882	William Ralston Wright Catherine Docherty	William Ralston Wright Catherine Docherty 💍 1882/2824	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 28	Pahautemui Pahautemui	1 month 1 month	Registrar's Office	82/2878		22 December 1882	Mr. S. W. Wyatt
266	23 December 1882	Henry William Lowe Mary Alice Perry	Henry William Dodd Mary Ann Philp 💍 1882/2397	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Johnsonville Johnsonville	years years	Odd Fellows Hall	82/2829	Eleanor Bowler, mother	23 December 1882	Rev. Alexander Easent
267	23 December 1882	Edward Button Frances Elizabeth Lawson	Edward Button Frances Elizabeth Lawson 💍 1882/2839	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 42	Wellington Wellington	5 days 2 months	St. Pauls	82/2812		23 December 1882	Rev. R. J. Thorpe
268	27 December 1882	Harry Fanshawe Henry Mary Ellen Fitzgerald	Harry Tanshawe Moody Mary Ellen Fitzgerald 💍 1882/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	25 27	Kaiwarra Kaiwarra	years years	St. Marys	82/2807		27 December 1882	Rev. John Mc Namara
269	27 December 1882	Alexander Skinner Sara Macleod	Alexander Skinner Sara Macleod 💍 1882/125	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	39 21	Auckland Wellington	1 month 4 days	St. John's Church	82/13039		27 December 1882	Rev. James Paterson
270	27 December 1882	William Doyle Annie Sophia Bronger	William Doyle Annie Sophia Brunger 💍 1882/2825	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 17	Makara Wellington	years 4 days	Registrar's Office	82/2849	James Bronger, father	27 December 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
271	27 December 1882	Samuel Barnes Charlotte Barnes	Samuel Barnes Charlotte Barnes 💍 1882/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 22	Wellington Wellington	4 days years	Registrar's Office	82/2850		27 December 1882	J. G. Holdsworth
272	27 December 1882	Ezekiel Fake Mary Ann Bells	Ezekiel Fake Mary Ann Balls 💍 1883/309	Bachelor Spinster	A. C. Force	33 30	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Marks	83/1253		27 December 1882	Rev. R. Coffey
273	28 December 1882	Henry Hance Alice Lucy Greaves	Henry Hauce Alice Lucy Greaves 💍 1882/2935	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 17	Karori Karori	years years	St. Marys	82/2830	Henry Greaves, father	28 December 1882	Rev. Alexander Easent

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).