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 521

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 September 1883 Registrar W. Hetet

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
16	3 July 1883	William Ford Johnson Helen Clark	William Ford Johnson Helen Clark 💍 1883/2010	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	21 years 21 years	Blenheim Blenheim	8 months 21 years	The House of Reverend James Foley, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	83/12062		3 July 1883	Reverend James Foley
17	9 July 1883	John Basil Gudgeon Augusta Matilda Avice Cooke	John Basil Gudgeon Augusta Matilda Avice Cooke 💍 1883/2009	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	29 years 24 years	Blenheim Blenheim	about 2 years about 15 years	The Residence of Mr. Grattan Cooke, Blenheim	83/12061		9 July 1883	Reverend H. J. Butt
18	9 July 1883	Samuel Connolly Evelyn Rayner	Samuel Connolly Evelyn Rayner 💍 1883/1947	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	27 years 24 years	Blenheim Blenheim	about 2 years about 15 years	The House of Mr. Joseph Rayner, Blenheim	83/12065		9 July 1883	Reverend H. J. Butt
19	11 August 1883	Thomas Henderson Ann Pritchard	Thomas Henderson Annie Pritchard 💍 1883/1958	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 years 16 years	Blenheim Blenheim	20 years 16 years	The House of Mr. Brock, Haddock, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	83/12066	Andrew Henderson, father; Henry Pritchard, father	11 August 1883	Reverend H. J. Butt
20	20 August 1883	Charles Neal Mary Boon	Charles Neal Mary Boon 💍 1883/2007	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic Servant	22 years 21 years	Pard Pard	3 months 7 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim			20 August 1883	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
21	3 September 1883	Henry Wadsworth Frances Mary Onion	Henry Wadsworth Frances Mary Onion 💍 1883/2011	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	27 years 19 years	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	3 years 15 years	The House of Mr. Edmond Onion, Wairau Valley	83/12063	Edmond Onion, father	3 September 1883	Reverend James Foley
22	14 September 1883	Robert Finlay Annie Eliza Smart	Robert Finlay Annie Eliza Smart 💍 1883/3591	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 20 years	Kaituna Valley Rock Ferry	10 years 20 years	The House of Mr. Charles Smart, Rock Ferry	83/12054	Charles Smart, father	14 September 1883	Reverend G. K. Stowell
23	22 September 1883	Roger Ryan Mary O'Connell	Roger Ryan Mary OConnell 💍 1883/2012	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	25 years 22 years	Blenheim Blenheim	7 years 4 years	The Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	83/12064		22 September 1883	Reverend James Foley

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).