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 393

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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
68	2 April 1883	Horace Charles Sanders Phoebe Harriet Redwood	Horace Charles Sanders Phoebe Harriet Rose 💍 1883/993	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	21 23	Wellington Wellington	4 months 5 months	Registrar's office	83/1068		2 April 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
69	3 April 1883	Joseph Redwood Elizabeth Whitaker	Jesse Joseph Redwood Elizabeth Whittaker 💍 1883/1312	Widower Spinster	Farmer	49 53	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral	83/1119		3 April 1883	Rev. J. McNamara
70	3 April 1883	Horace Leigh Sandeford Grace Fowler	Horace Leigh Sandiford Grace Foulds 💍 1883/1256	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	23 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Residence of Mr. Edmondson, Nelson Street, Wellington	83/1057	Sarah Osborn Jones, mother	3 April 1883	Rev. R. Bavin
71	3 April 1883	John Cole Emily Cole	John Cole Emily Cole 💍 1883/1014	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 23	Karori Karori	6 months 4 years	Registrar's office	83/1065		3 April 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
72	3 April 1883	Patrick Dooley Theresa Annie Gray	Patrick Dooley Theresa Annie Gray 💍 1883/1015	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	23 21	Wellington Wellington	7 years 13 years	Registrar's office	83/1066		3 April 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
73	7 April 1883	Frederick Griffith Boileau Elizabeth Smart Foxley	Frederick Griffiths Boileau Elizabeth Smart Lonley 💍 1883/1328	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	24 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	St. Mark's	83/1111		7 April 1883	Rev. R. Coffey
74	9 April 1883	John William Dorrell Mary McNamara	John William Dorrell Mary McGinley 💍 1883/1319	Bachelor Spinster	River Overseer	29 29	Wellington Wellington	4 days 2 weeks	Roman Catholic Cathedral	83/1126		9 April 1883	Rev. J. McNamara
75	9 April 1883	Harold Ringstad Eliza Annie Plimmer	Harold Ringstad Eliza Annie Plimmer 💍 1883/1016	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	24 21	Wellington Wellington	4 months 4 years	Registrar's office	83/1067		9 April 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
76	10 April 1883	John Albert Charles Taylor Georgina Elizabeth Saylor	John Albert Charles Wiren Georgina Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1883/1923	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	26 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Residence of Mr. William Saylor, Wellington	83/1099		10 April 1883	Rev. L. Egg
77	11 April 1883	Thomas Trowels Kate Wheeler	Thomas Trowell Kate Wheeler 💍 1883/994	Bachelor Spinster	Musician	23 22	Wellington Wellington	4 months 4 years	Registrar's office	83/1069		11 April 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
78	12 April 1883	William Pone Annie Farrell	William Toner Annie Farrell 💍 1883/29	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Wellington Wellington	3 years 4 years	St. Mary of the Angels	83/1104		12 April 1883	Rev. P. Kerrigan
79	14 April 1883	Charles Frederick Delves Annie Eliza Pressland	Charles Frederic Delves Anne Eliza Pressland 💍 1883/1329	Bachelor Spinster	Rem. Hotelier	21 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days 5 days	St. John's	83/1112		14 April 1883	Rev. J. Paterson

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).