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 338

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1883 Registrar F.W. Woon

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
9	20 January 1883	George Williams Elizabeth Robertson	George Williams Elizabeth Robertson 💍 1883/266	Bachelor Spinster	General Carrier	23 19	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 7 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	83/209	Robison, Father	20 January 1883	F.W. Woon
10	23 January 1883	David Smith Maria Griffin	David Smith Prince Maria Griffin 💍 1883/250	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	19 16	Wanganui Wanganui	14 days 8 days	In the Church of England, Wanganui	83/211	Hope Griffin, Mother by authority	6 February 1883	Rev. E.L. Tudor
11	25 January 1883	Patrick Bowden Hannah Condon	Patrick Bowler Hannah Londrigan 💍 1883/247	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 22	Wanganui Wanganui	7 yrs 4 yrs	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	83/214		25 January 1883	Rev. C.H. Kirk
12	30 January 1883	John McLean Sarah Wilkinson	John McLaren Sarah Wilkinson 💍 1883/243	Widower Spinster	Mariner	54 33	Wanganui Wanganui	28 yrs 1 1/2 yrs	In the Presbyterian Manse, Wanganui	See entry 13		30 January 1883	Rev. James Treadwell
13	30 January 1883	John McLean Sarah Wilkinson	John McLaren Sarah Wilkinson 💍 1883/243	Widower Spinster	Mariner	54 33	Wanganui Wanganui	28 yrs 1 1/2 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	83/210		30 January 1883	F.W. Woon
14	8 February 1883	Robert Williams Mary Lister	Robert Williams Mary Lister 💍 1883/244	Widower Spinster	Platelayer	33 22	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs 22 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	83/211		8 February 1883	F.W. Woon
15	27 February 1883	Henry Tiddler Marion Sarah Blake	Henry Edward Addenbrooke Marion Sarah Peake 💍 1883/251	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Wanganui Wanganui	10 days 25 yrs	In the Church of England, Wanganui	83/218		27 February 1883	Rev. E.L. Tudor
16	21 March 1883	Julius Adels Maria Preuss	Julius Ahlers Marie Preuss 💍 1883/245	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 24	Wanganui Wanganui	5 mos 2 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	83/212		21 March 1883	F.W. Woon

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).