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 407

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
202	30 October 1883	Bernard Gordon Brown Fanny Gell	Bernard Gordon Crosbie Fanny Gell 💍 1883/2797	Bachelor Divorcee	Dealer	35 35	Wellington Wellington	14 days years	Mr John Gell's House, Cuba Street	83/12767		30 October 1883	Revd Rainsford Bavin
203	31 October 1883	Frederick William Smith Mary Kirkwood	Frederick William Smith Mary Kirkwood 💍 1883/2735	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	United Methodist Church, Courtenay Place	83/12779	Mother Mary Kirkwood	31 October 1883	Revd H. B. Redstone
204	31 October 1883	Patrick McMahon Catherine McMahon	Patrick McMahon Catherine McMahon 💍 1883/2775	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary's Cathedral	83/12840		31 October 1883	Revd John McNamara
205	31 October 1883	William Smith Minnie Rose Corbett	William Smith Minnie Rose Corbett 💍 1883/3624	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	20 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12797	Alfred Smith, father of groom. No parents in Colony.	15 November 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
206	1 November 1883	John Plummer Ella Mary Ann Dakson	John Plummer Ella Mary Ann Datson 💍 1883/2798	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	47 44	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	83/12768		1 November 1883	Revd Rainsford Bavin
207	2 November 1883	Henry Veale Anne O'Dwyer	Henry Veale Annie ODwyer 💍 1883/2773	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	50 36	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	St Mary's Cathedral	83/12868		2 November 1883	Revd John McNamara
208	5 November 1883	William John Colley Elizabeth Edwards	William John Colley Elizabeth Edwards 💍 1883/2737	Bachelor Spinster	Captain in Salvation Army	20 23	Wellington Wellington	4 months 3 days	Princes Theatre	83/12781	No parents in Colony	19 November 1883	Revd A. J. Smith
209	6 November 1883	John Harkins Mary Bateman	John Harkins Mary Bateman 💍 1883/3623	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 21	Wellington Wellington	years 3 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12795		6 November 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
210	7 November 1883	John Lindsay Annie Harper	John Lindsay Annie Harper 💍 1883/2803	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 24	Wellington Wellington	1 year 7 days	St Peters Church	83/12772		7 November 1883	Venble Archdeacon Stock
211	15 November 1883	Edmond Ryan Hannah Shaw	Edmond Ryan Hannah Shaw 💍 1883/2731	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	24 25	Wellington Wellington	6 weeks 8 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12796		15 November 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
212	16 November 1883	James Duncan Corry Jane Davies	James Duncan Corry Jane Davies 💍 1883/2780 Charles Carter Jane Davies 💍 1883/1438	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	23 32	Wellington Wellington	2 months 2 months	St Johns Church	83/12874		16 November 1883	Revd James Paterson
213	20 November 1883	Johann Schmidt Bornholdt Annie Marshall	Johann Schmidt Bornholdt Annie Mashall 💍 1883/2732	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	38 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12798		20 November 1883	J. G. Holdsworth

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).