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 406

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
190	18 October 1883	Charles Scardonhonkith Sarah Ann Carter	Charles Forrester Monteith Sarah Ann Carter 💍 1883/2729	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	23 24	Wellington Blackbridge	3 days 3 days	Presbyterian Church	83/12746		18 October 1883	Revd. David D. Rodger
191	18 October 1883	George Edwards Emily Sauvarin	George Edwards Emily Samesin 💍 1883/2734	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 20	Wellington Wellington	18 months years	Mr. Sauvarin's street, Austin Street	83/12748	Father	18 October 1883	Revd. H. B. Recestone
192	19 October 1883	George Winter Sarah Ann Oliver	George Winter Sarah Ann Oliver 💍 1883/2800	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 17	Wellington Wellington	years years	Baptist Church, Vivian Street	83/12769	Supreme Court	19 October 1883	Revd. J. I. Hinton
193	22 October 1883	Henry Johnston Robinson Edith Kebbell	Henry Johnston Robinson Tilly Edith Kebbell 💍 1883/2801	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 22	Wanganui Wellington	18 months years	St. Peters Church	83/12770		22 October 1883	Venble. Archdeacon Stock
194	22 October 1883	Edward Playle Anne Cobham	Edward Player Anne Cobham 💍 1883/2726	Widower Widow	Accountant	65 54	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12791		22 October 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
195	22 October 1883	Giles Henry Johnson Mary Lee	Giles Henry Johnson Mary Lee 💍 1883/2727	Bachelor Spinster	Chimney Sweep	32 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12792		22 October 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
196	23 October 1883	William Robb Annie King	William Robb Annie King 💍 1883/2730	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 21	Wellington Wellington	7 months years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12794		23 October 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
197	24 October 1883	George Petersen Florence Howard	George Petersen Florence Howard 💍 1883/2728	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	83/12793	Mother	24 October 1883	J. G. Holdsworth
198	25 October 1883	George Boyd Emma Lange	[No folio number, it appears no marriage was registered]	Bachelor Widow	Settler	42 36	Wellington Wellington	4 days 2 months	Mr. Malcolm's House, Taranaki Street			25 October 1883	Revd. C. G. Ogg
199	25 October 1883	William Sandbrook Henrietta Graham	William Sandbrook Henrietta Graham 💍 1883/2771	Bachelor Spinster	Cabdriver	24 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary's of the Angels	83/12868		8 November 1883	Revd. P. Kenegin
200	26 October 1883	George Sievers Sarah Monaghan	George Sievers Sarah Monaghan 💍 1883/2774	Bachelor Spinster	Wine Merchant	26 22	Wellington Karori	years years	St. Mary's Cathedral	83/12869		26 October 1883	Revd. J. Mc Namara
201	29 October 1883	Robert Wilberfoss Alice Millward	Robert Wilberfop Alice Millward 💍 1883/2802	Bachelor Spinster	Broker	30 25	Wellington Wellington	7 months years	St. Peters Church	83/12771		29 October 1883	Venble. Archdeacon Stock

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).