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 399

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
141	2 July 1883	William Fraser Mary Allan	William Fraser Mary Allan 💍 1883/1858	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	46 30	Wellington Hutt	3 days 2 months	House of Mr Clark Allan, Hutt	83/1981		2 July 1883	Revd D. Rodger
142	2 July 1883	Trayton Elliot Fuller Catherine Rosamond Boys Smith	Fraytor Elitt Fuller Catherine Rosamund Boys-Smith 💍 1883/1867	Bachelor Spinster	Draftsman	26 28	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St Pauls Cathedral	83/1989		2 July 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe
143	2 July 1883	Albert Hardy Finnis Alice Nott	Albert Hardy Finnis Alice Nott 💍 1883/1942	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 25	Wellington Ohariu	1 week years	Methodist Free Church, Canterbury Place	83/1994		2 July 1883	H. B. Reastone
144	5 July 1883	William Tomlins Margaret Julia Miller	William Tomlins Margaret Julia Miller 💍 1883/1859	Bachelor Widow	Sailor	24 27	Wellington Wellington	5 weeks 5 weeks	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	83/1982		5 July 1883	Revd R. Bavin
145	6 July 1883	Edward Moorhouse Mary Ann Rhodes	Edward Moorhouse Mary Ann Rhodes 💍 1883/1922	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	49 31	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St Pauls Cathedral	83/1990		6 July 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe
146	10 July 1883	Charles Edmund Linton Susannah Amelia Linton	Charles Edmunds Susannah Amelia Tuitor 💍 1883/1872	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 30	Wellington Wellington	19 months years	St Peters Church	83/1971		10 July 1883	Venble Archdeacon Stock
147	11 July 1883	James Maher Johanna O'Halloran	James Maher Johanna O'Halloran 💍 1883/1869	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	32 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary of the Angels	83/1968		11 July 1883	Revd P. Kerrigan
148	12 July 1883	George John Best Elizabeth Gilbert	George John Best Elizabeth Gilbert 💍 1883/1862	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 24	Ohariu Ohariu	years years	Mr Gilbert's House, Ohariu	83/1984		12 July 1883	Revd W. Baumber
149	12 July 1883	Francis Alexander Kate Rees	Francis Alexander Kate Rees 💍 1883/1860	Bachelor Spinster	Hair Dresser	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Mr Alexander's House, Victoria Place	83/1983		12 July 1883	Revd W. Baumber
150	12 July 1883	George Cotton Elizabeth Allen	George Cotton Elizabeth Allen 💍 1883/1865	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 19	Wellington Wellington	9 months 1 year	House of Mrs Allan, Barker Street	83/1984	Mrs Allan, mother	12 July 1883	Revd J. S. Hindon
151	16 July 1883	John Anson Janet Waugh	John Ansin Janet Waugh 💍 1883/1902	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Wainuiomata Hutt	5 months 3 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/1953		16 July 1883	A. H. Smith, Depy
152	16 July 1883	George Avery Harriet Isabella Sutherland	George Avery Harriet Isabella Sutherland 💍 1883/1925	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Johns Church, Willis Street	83/2001		16 July 1883	Revd 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).