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 410

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1883 Registrar J. G. Holdsworth

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
238	19 December 1883	William Lovgood Annie Symons	William Toogood Annie Symons 💍 1883/2920	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	44 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Mr. F. Frowklaws House, Featherston Terrace	83/12844		19 December 1883	Rev. J. Paterson
239	20 December 1883	Alexander Johnston Kate Josephine Dale	Alexander Johnstone McGowan Kate Josephine Dale 💍 1883/2925	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 23	Wellington Wellington	7 years 6 months	St. Johns Church	83/12845		20 December 1883	Rev. James Paterson
240	20 December 1883	Henry James Hollis Mary Ann Sanders	Henry James Hollis Mary Ann Sanders 💍 1883/2715	Bachelor Widow	Barman	26 33	Wellington Wellington	7 months 7 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12806		20 December 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
241	24 December 1883	Edward Armaghan Elizabeth Ann Lockett	Edward Monaghan Elizabeth Ann Lockett 💍 1884/521	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 25	Karori Karori	7 years 7 years	St. Marys Cathedral, Wellington and St. Marys Church, Karori	84/309 & 4313	Archibald Thomson, father	24 December 1883	Rev. John McNamara & Rev. Alexander Olivent
242	24 December 1883	William Ralph Dearlove Ellen Sophia Perks	William Ralph Dearlove Ellen Sophia Perks 💍 1883/2786	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 30	Wellington Wellington	1 Week 3 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/2858		24 December 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
243	24 December 1883	John Blanford Agnes Louisa Thomson	John Blomford Agnes Louisa Thomson 💍 1884/518	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Church of Christ, Dixon Street	84/304		24 December 1883	Rev. A. B. Maston
244	24 December 1883	Richard Mudgway Annie Cooley	Richard Mudgway Anney Cooley 💍 1883/2716	Divorce Widow	Carpenter	37 25	Johnsonville Johnsonville	7 years 7 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/2804		24 December 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
245	27 December 1883	James Toomath Alice Jane Hobbs	James Toomath Alice Jane Hobbs 💍 1884/520	Bachelor Spinster	Saw Miller	23 19	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Mr. Hobbs House, Adelaide Road	84/3016	Thomas Hobbs, father	27 December 1883	Rev. A. B. Maston
246	28 December 1883	Frederick Bennion Kate Butts	Frederick Blunson Kate Cutts 💍 1884/530	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	21 23	Wellington Wellington	18 months 20 months	St. Peters Church	84/295		28 December 1883	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
247	29 December 1883	Alfred Herbert Parkinson Rhoda Jemima Finlay	Alfred Herbert Parkinson Rhoda Jemima Finlay Bouthorne 💍 1884/967	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 27	Wellington Wellington	7 days 7 years	Mr. Riggs House, Abel Smith Street, Bonthorne	84/11243		29 December 1883	Rev. J. Paterson
248	29 December 1883	James Conlin Mary Bishop	James Conlin Mary Bishop 💍 1884/323	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	30 23	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Marys Cathedral	84/314		29 December 1883	Rev. John McNamara
249	31 December 1883	Edward Parker Elizabeth Amy Parker	Edward Parker Elizabeth Amy Parker 💍 1883/3627	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	35 27	Wellington Wellington	7 years 1 Week	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12859		31 December 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 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).