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 388

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
12	7 January 1883	George William Britton Caroline Ransome	George William Dutton Caroline Ramsone 💍 1883/1853	Widower Widow	Bookseller	51 34	Wellington a	7 years a	Resd W. Paterson's, House Woolcombest	83/1194		17 January 1883	Revd J. Paterson
13	23 January 1883	Edward Richard Ward Eugenie Sophia Cheevannes	Edward Richard Ward Eugenie Sophia Chevannes 💍 1883/277	Batchelor Spinster	Draper	31 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days 7 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral	83/245	S.G.H. Rock, William Loves	23 January 1883	Revd J. McNamara
14	26 January 1883	Charles Beecher Ellen Johnson	Charles Beecher Ellen Johnson 💍 1883/1945	Batchelor Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Wellington do	7 years do	House of Revd C. S. Ogg	83/1997		26 January 1883	Revd C. S. Ogg
15	26 January 1883	James Wallace Mary McEntee	James Wallace Mary McEntere 💍 1883/1850	Batchelor Spinster	Labourer	29 23	do do	7 months 7 months	St Mary of the Angels	83/1965		26 January 1883	Revd F. Kerrigan
16	29 January 1883	William Presley Rash Emma Wakew	William Presley Rash Emma Wakeham 💍 1883/298	Batchelor Spinster	Brickmaker	27 23	Wellington Wellington	27 years 23 years	Residence of Mr Jenness	83/266		29 January 1883	Revd Wm Baumber
17	29 January 1883	Arthur Thomas Warner Cobham Elizabeth Lavinia Anne Edwards	Arthur Thomas Warner Cobham Elizabeth Lavinia Anne Edwards 💍 1883/1854	Batchelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	24 24	do do	23 years 5 months	Residence of Mr Abrams, Adelaide Road Wellington	83/1994	Edward	29 January 1883	Revd J. Paterson
18	30 January 1883	Thomas Bax Alice Thompson	Thomas Bax Alice Thompson 💍 1883/386	Batchelor Spinster	Hospital attendant	27 24	do do	12 months 7 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	83/278		30 January 1883	Registrar
19	30 January 1883	David Atkinson Lucy Gilligan	David Atkinson Lucy Gilligan 💍 1883/387	Batchelor Spinster	Publisher	32 21	do do	1 week 3 days	do	83/279		30 January 1883	do
20	2 February 1883	Cornelius Bresnan Catherine McDonald	Cornelius Bresnan Catherine McDonald 💍 1883/279	Widower Spinster	Labourer	36 30	do do	5 years do	Bowden Cathedral Hill	83/245		2 February 1883	Revd J. McNamara
21	3 February 1883	William Thegea Agnes Dryer	William Tregea Agnes Fryer 💍 1883/295	Batchelor Spinster	Clerk	27 20	do do	2 weeks 7 years	St Peter's Wellington	83/262		3 February 1883	Ven Archdeacon Stock
22	5 February 1883	Hapi Puketapu Mary Ann Jane Pitt	[No folio number and no matching marriage registration - it appears this marriage was not registered]	Batchelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Lower Hutt Wellington	7 years 7 years	St Peter's Church Wellington			5 February 1883	Ven Archdeacon Stock
23	7 February 1883	Edward Mullen Agnes Hausman	Edward Mullen Agnes Hansman 💍 1883/389	Batchelor Widow	Barman	24 32	Wellington do	3 months 7 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	83/281		7 February 1883	Registrar

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).