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 389

District of 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
24	9 February 1883	John Cramp Fanny O'Brien	John Cramp Fanny O'Brien 💍 1883/26	Batchelor Spinster	Labourer	24 29	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	Years Years	Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt	83/1102		9 February 1883	Revd John Lampila
25	10 February 1883	Rowland Shipley Waterhouse Edith Emily Jackson	Rowland Skiptey Waterhouse Edith Emily Jackson 💍 1883/303	Batchelor Spinster	merchant	28 18	Wellington Lower Hutt	Years Years	St James	83/252	Henry Jackson, father	10 February 1883	Revd Charles Fancourt
26	10 February 1883	Francis William the Batchelor Annie Ryder	Francis William Cole Annie Ryder 💍 1883/390	Batchelor Spinster	Painter	29 20	Wellington Wellington	months Years	Registrar's Office	83/282	Immanuel Ryder, father	10 February 1883	Registrar
27	12 February 1883	Joseph Thorp Sarah Wilson	Joseph Thorpe Sarah Wilson 💍 1883/1861 Joseph Richard Jane Wilson 💍 1884/426 Luther Thames Sarah Wilson 💍 1884/59 Robert Wilson Sarah Wilson 💍 1884/218	Batchelor Spinster	Expressman	27 20	Wellington Wellington	5 years years	St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott St. Wellington	83/196	Mary Ann Wilson, mother	12 February 1883	Revd P. Kerrigan
28	12 February 1883	William Henry Parr Elizabeth Dawson	William Henry Parr Elizabeth Dawson 💍 1883/376	Widower Spinster	Butcher	28 20	Wellington Wadestown	Years Years	Cathedral, Wellington	83/292		27 February 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe
29	16 February 1883	James Henry Woodhouse Miller Stewart	James Henry Woodhouse Hiller Stewart 💍 1883/293	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	27 20	Wellington Wellington	7 years years	St Peters Church, Wellington	83/260		16 February 1883	Ven archdeacon Stock
30	17 February 1883	James Vickers Thornhill Lavinia Maria Bristow	James Vickers Thornhill Lavina Maria Bristow 💍 1883/299	Batchelor Spinster	Trimmer in foundry	29 24	Wellington Wellington	2 months years	Wesley Church	83/267		17 February 1883	Revd R. Bavin
31	24 February 1883	Joseph Hughes Davies Margaret Cusack	Joseph Hughes Davies Margaret Cusack 💍 1883/283	Widower Spinster	Clerk	35 28	Wellington Wellington	2 years 2 years	Residence of W. Kerdlake, Thorndon	83/249		24 February 1883	Revd H. B. Redstone
32	24 February 1883	Albert White Emily Williams	Albert White Emily Williams 💍 1883/370	Batchelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 19	Wellington Wellington	Years Years	Registrar's Office	83/286	Samuel Isaac, Priest-uncle	24 February 1883	Registrar
33	24 February 1883	Walter Tilley Sarah Siddell	Walter Tilsley Sarah Siddells 💍 1883/300	Batchelor Spinster	Law Clerk	33 23	Wellington Wellington	Years Years	Residence of Mrs Siddell, Cambridge Terrace	83/268		24 February 1883	Revd W. Baumber
34	27 February 1883	Percy Brown Agnes Maud Graham	Percy Brown Agnes Maud Graham 💍 1883/310	Batchelor Spinster	Bailiff/Clerk	23 21	Wellington Karori	3 days years	St Mary's	83/234		27 February 1883	Revd Alexander Baker
35	1 March 1883	Robert Anderson Kate McCarthy	Robert Anderson Kate McCarthy 💍 1883/391	Batchelor Spinster	Mariner	24 24	Wellington Wellington	Years Years	Registrar's Office	83/283		1 March 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).