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 390

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1883 Registrar Joseph Godfrey 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
36	2 March 1883	George Henry Dear Jessie Armstrong	George Henry Dean Jessie Armstrong 💍 1883/282	Batchelor Spinster	Coachman	23 21	Wellington Wellington	2 years 6 months	Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street	83/248	2 March 1883	Revd Arthur J. Trim
37	2 March 1883	John Henry Greig Catherine Dwyer	John Henry Greig Catherine Dwyer 💍 1883/392	Batchelor Spinster	Groom	30 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Well=	83/284	2 March 1883	Registrar
38	3 March 1883	James Costin Webb Elizabeth Barnard	James Costin Webb Elizabeth Barnard 💍 1883/301	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	23 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesley Church, Taranaki St.	83/1269	3 March 1883	Revd W. Baumber
39	5 March 1883	Nathaniel Ballo Mary Ann Lowry	Nathaniel Balls Mary Amy Lowry 💍 1883/312	Batchelor Spinster	Market Gardener	27 23	Wellington Wellington	7 years years	St Mark's Church	83/256	5 March 1883	Revd R. Coffey
40	5 March 1883	Walter William Wilsher Alice Gosling	Walter William Wilsher Alice Gosling 💍 1883/296	Batchelor Spinster	Labourer	27 20	Hutt Hutt	3 years 3 years	Residence of William Gosling, Belmont	83/1263	5 March 1883	Revd W. Cannell
41	5 March 1883	Peter Hodge Delia Valentine	Peter Hodge Delia Valentine 💍 1883/378	Batchelor Spinster	Sawyer	27 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years years	St Paul's Cathedral	83/294	5 March 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe
42	5 March 1883	William James Knocks Mary Carter	William James Knocks Mary Carter 💍 1883/369	Batchelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Wellington Wellington	2 months years	Registrar's Office, Well=	83/285	5 March 1883	Registrar
43	8 March 1883	Samuel Thomas Cooper Elizabeth Brown	Samuel Thomas Cooper Elizabeth Brown 💍 1883/302	Batchelor Spinster	Driver	28 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	Residence of W. Cooper, Taranaki Street	83/270	8 March 1883	Revd R. Bavin
44	10 March 1883	Charles Alexander Baker Clara Bradey	Charles Alexander Baker Clara Bradey 💍 1883/24	Batchelor Spinster	Accountant	25 22	Pahautanui Pahautanui	years years	Residence of Mr Bradey, Pahautanui	83/1100	10 March 1883	Revd J. I. Blackburne
45	10 March 1883	Robert Willwood Jane Ann Taylor	Robert Wellwood Jane Ann Taylor Ling 💍 1883/377	Widower Spinster	Sheep farmer	37 26	Wellington Wellington	1 week years	St Paul's Cathedral	83/1298	10 March 1883	Revd R. J. Thorpe
46	12 March 1883	George Windrum Margaret Kelly	George Windrum Margaret Kelly 💍 1883/1868	Batchelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Lower Hutt Wellington	3 days 3 years	St Mary of the Angels, Will=	83/1167	13 March 1883	Revd P. Kerrigan
47	13 March 1883	William Henry King Elizabeth Prideaux	William Henry King Elizabeth Prideaux 💍 1883/284	Batchelor Spinster	Shoemaker	21 21	Wellington Wellington	2 years years	Residence of Mr Crawford, Taranaki Street, Wellington	83/1250	13 March 1883	Revd H. B. Redstone
48	14 March 1883	William Reid Barbara Sinclair	William Reid Barbara Sinclair 💍 1883/368	Batchelor Spinster	Lighthouse Keeper	29 29	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	St John's Church, Wellington	83/1276	14 March 1883	Revd J. Paterson

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).