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 519

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 June 1883 Registrar John James Winsbury White

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
7	2 April 1883	Antonio Marconi Martha Testor	Antonio Maroni Martha Testor 💍 1883/2031	Bachelor Widow	Miner Dressmaker	38 years 26 years	Blenheim Blenheim	9 days 12 months	The House of Mr. John Ragg, Blenheim	83/1185		2 April 1883	Revd. W. O. Robb
8	14 April 1883	James Fulton Elizabeth Hall	James Fulton Elizabeth Hall 💍 1883/1103 Thomas Kempthorne Elizabeth Hall 💍 1883/2285	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	27 years 22 years	Blenheim Blenheim	22 years 2 years	The House of Mr. Robert Hall, Spring Creek	83/1181		14 April 1883	Revd. D. I. W. Nicholl
9	24 April 1883	Dick Simson Elizabeth Lacey	Dick Simson Elizabeth Lacey 💍 1883/2036	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	32 years 22 years	Awatere Awatere	12 years 8 months	The House of Mr. Isaac Fowler, Awatere	83/1186		24 April 1883	Revd. W. O. Robb
10	7 May 1883	Joseph Thomas Levin Elizabeth Jane Okey	Joseph Thomas Levien Elizabeth Jane Okey 💍 1883/1105	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand Domestic Servant	26 years 16 years	Kaituna Valley Kaituna Valley	5 years 8 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	83/1183	George Richard Okey, father	7 May 1883	The Registrar of Marriages
11	17 May 1883	Charles Horace Raven Ann Vercoe	Charles Horace Raven Ann Vercoe 💍 1883/1104	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 years 20 years	Blenheim Blenheim	7 weeks 5 years	The House of Philip Vercoe, Renwick, Middle Road	83/1182	Phillip Vercoe, father	17 May 1883	Revd. D. I. W. Nicholl
12	30 May 1883	Charles Henry Owens Ada Allinson	Charles Henry Owens Ada Allinson 💍 1883/1102	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	26 years 21 years	Blenheim Blenheim	5 years 2 months	The House of Mr. Robert Phillips, Spring Creek	See entry no. 14		30 May 1883	Revd. Arthur Hermon
13	2 June 1883	John Hickey Kate Burton	John Hickie Kate Burton 💍 1883/3555	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	36 years 21 years	Durngree, Awatere Durngree, Awatere	15 months 10 months	The Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	83/1184		2 June 1883	Revd. James Foley
14	5 June 1883	Charles Henry Owens Ada Allinson	Charles Henry Owens Ada Allinson 💍 1883/1102	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	26 years 21 years	Blenheim Blenheim	5 years 2 months	Holy Trinity Church, Spring Creek	83/1180		5 June 1883	Revd. Arthur Hermon

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).