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 391

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
49	14 March 1883	Christian Walter Marion Anderson	Christian Walter Marion Anderson 💍 1883/371	Batchelor Spinster	Mariner	27 27	Wellington Wellington	6 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	83/284		14 March 1883	Registrar
50	16 March 1883	George Arthur Manning Nellie Day	George Arthur Manning Nellie Day 💍 1883/313	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year 8 months over a year	St Mark's Wellington	83/254		16 March 1883	Revd R. Coffey
51	17 March 1883	Samuel Jasper Hickson Mary Jane White	Samuel Jasper Dickson Mary Jane White 💍 1883/1946	Batchelor Spinster	Foundry Man	22 18	Petone Petone	1 year 4 years	Church, Wellington	83/1998	George White, father	17 March 1883	Revd C. S. Ogg
52	19 March 1883	Henry Ernest Burr Eliza Josephine Buck	Henry Ernest Burr Eliza Josephine Buck 💍 1883/304	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	22 17	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Residence of Francis Buck, Tory Street	83/1271	Francis Buck, father	19 March 1883	Revd R. Bavin
53	19 March 1883	James Baxter Edelsten Annie Maria Hall	James Baxter Eddsten Amie Maria Hall 💍 1883/297	Batchelor Spinster	Labourer	24 26	Wellington Lower Hutt	1 week 4 years	Residence of Mr. Joseph Hall	83/264		19 March 1883	Revd W. Cannell
54	19 March 1883	John Bowman Eliza Margaretha Robbins	John Bowman Chublin McEwen Eliza Margaretha Robbins 💍 1883/1855	Batchelor Spinster	Hatter	26 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Residence of Mr. Robbins, Ghuznee Street, Wellington	83/1978	Margaretha Robbins, mother	19 March 1883	Revd J. Paterson
55	20 March 1883	James Rodgers Foster Hannah Dawson	James Rodgers Foster Hannah Dawson 💍 1883/294	Batchelor Spinster	Miller	30 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 2 years	St Peter's Church, Wellington	83/1261		20 March 1883	Ven archdeacon Stock
56	21 March 1883	William Feeney Rose Linda Connoly	William Feeney Rose Linda Connolly 💍 1883/280	Batchelor Spinster	Labourer	31 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Wellington	83/1246		21 March 1883	Revd I. McNamara
57	22 March 1883	Jacob Zimaw Rosalia Cohen	Jacob Ziman Rosalie Cohen 💍 1883/306	Batchelor Spinster	Tobacconist	26 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Jewish Synagogue	83/213		22 March 1883	Revd H. van Staveren
58	22 March 1883	Henry Webster Roberts Mary Julia Annie Clifford	Henry Webster Roberts Mary Julia Annie Clifton 💍 1883/314	Batchelor Widow	Setter	27 23	Wellington Wellington	1 year 4 years	St Mark's Church	83/258		22 March 1883	Revd R. Coffey
59	24 March 1883	Walter Fry Amelia Gregg Fortune	Walter Fry Amelia Gregg Fortune 💍 1883/372	Batchelor Spinster	Bootmaker	28 26	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Registrar's Office	83/288		24 March 1883	Registrar
60	27 March 1883	Frederic Samuel Eva Harding	Frederic Samuel Eva Harding 💍 1883/311	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	35 25	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 days	St Mary's, Karori	83/255		27 March 1883	Revd A. Dasent

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).