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 932

District of Dunedin 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
117	14 April 1882	James Lewin Catherine Thomson	James Lewin Catherine Thomson 💍 1882/1504 James Hawkins Hannah Thomson 💍 1882/839	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	29 40	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	82/1555		14 April 1882	A.R. Mure
118	15 April 1882	Leonard Whittington, Jun. Agnes Lambert	Leonard Whittington Agnes Lambert 💍 1882/2016	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	22 22	Dunedin Roslyn	20 years 15 years	In the house of James Lambert	82/1604		15 April 1882	Revd J. Berry, Wesleyan Minister
119	15 April 1882	Charles Gustar William Kruse		Bachelor	Miner	29	Dunedin	10 days
119	15 April 1882	Albertine Christina Stern		Spinster		21	Dunedin	10 days	In the house of Revd. Dr. Stuart	82/1583		15 April 1882	Revd. Dr. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
120	15 April 1882	James Arthur Rix Mary Ellen George	James Arthur Rix Mary Ellen George 💍 1882/2020	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	35 19	Rothesay Ravensbourne	15 months 4 years	In the house of Edward Christopher George	82/1611	Edward Christopher George, father of Minor	15 April 1882	Revd. J.C.M. Wilson, Church of England Minister
121	17 April 1882	Patrick O'Neill Margaret In Kee	Patrick ONeill Margaret McKee 💍 1882/3619 Patrick O'Neill Margaret Glen 💍 1882/3636	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	25 23	Caversham Maori Hill	10 days 11 months	In St. Joseph's Chapel	82/1449		17 April 1882	A. Fitzgerald, Revd. In Walsh, Roman Catholic Priest
122	17 April 1882	Arnold Baron Meinrath Rosetta Ida Emanuel	Arnold Aaron Meinrath Rosetta Ida Emanuel 💍 1882/1524	Bachelor Spinster	Importer	35 20	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 5 years	In the Synagogue	82/1551	Caroline Isaacs, mother of minor	17 April 1882	Revd. B. Lichtenstein, Jewish Rabbi

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).