Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 387

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1883

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	1 January 1883	Robert Henry Davenport Margaret Scarff	Robert Henry Davenport Margaret Scarff 💍 1883/374	Batchelor Spinster	Plumber	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years	St Paul's Cathedral	83/1290	3 January 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe.
2	3 January 1883	Niels Rasmussen Jhanne Dorothea Paterson	Niels Rasmussen Johanna Dorethea Peterson 💍 1883/3500	Batchelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	House, Alphast	83/1265	3 January 1883	Revd R. Bavin
3	3 January 1883	Henry James Rodgers Georgina McEllowing	Henry James Rodgers Georgina McElwaine 💍 1883/315	Batchelor Spinster	Draper	26 22	Wellington Wellington	years	St Peter's Church	83/1259	3 January 1883	Revd archdeacon Stock
4	5 January 1883	James McLaren Rachel Mary Boyd	James McLaren Rachel Mary Boyd 💍 1883/379	Batchelor Spinster	Basket Maker	28 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellingtn	83/1277	5 January 1883	Registrar
5	5 January 1883	Richard Burgess Catherine McGee	Richard Burgess Catherine McGee 💍 1883/307	Batchelor Spinster	Laborer	26 27	Wellington Wellington	4 years	Church of Christ, Cuba St.	83/1274	5 January 1883	Revd a. B. Maston.
6	5 January 1883	George Yorke Thereas Caruthers	George Yorke Theresa Carrtheus 💍 1883/1914	Batchelor Spinster	Laborer	29 29	Wellington Wellington	years	St Mary of the Angels	83/1964	5 January 1883	Revd P. Kerrigan
7	6 January 1883	Simone Juchini Mary Margaret Martin	Simone Luchini Mary Margaret Martin Stalker 💍 1883/1851	Batchelor Spinster	Fisherman	43 33	Wellington Wellington	years	St Mary's Church	83/1974	6 January 1883	Revd Jas Paterson
8	8 January 1883	Benjamin Couborne Stalker Betty Zilpha Benge	Benjamin Couborne Betty Tilpah Benge 💍 1883/292	Batchelor Spinster	Station Master	28 20	Petone Wellington	years	St James's Church, Lower Hutt	83/1237	8 January 1883	Revd T. Fancourt
9	12 January 1883	Archibald Stansfield Whitson Clara Parkinson	Archibald Stansfield Whitson Clara Parkinson 💍 1883/375	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	34 28	Wellington Wellington	4 years 14 days	St Paul's Cathedral	83/1291	12 January 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe.
10	15 January 1883	Robert John Munro. Eva Elizabeth Bryant.	Robert John Munro Eva Elizabeth Bryant 💍 1883/1852	Batchelor Spinster	Saw miller	21 21	Ohariu Ohariu	3 years years	St John's Presbyterian Church	83/1975	15 January 1883	Revd Jas Paterson
11	15 January 1883	Richard Charles Hederick Gibson Worth Mary Eliza Smith	Richard Charles Frederick Gibson Worth Mary Eliza Smith 💍 1883/388 Frederick George Cook Mary Eliza Smith 💍 1883/3221	Batchelor Spinster	Carter	28 20	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	83/1280	6 February 1883	Registrar

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).