Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 986

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1885

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
221	20 August 1885	Paul Curtis Mary Emma Armitage	Paul Curtis Mary Emma Armitage 💍 1885/2190	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	29 21	Wellington Wellington	3 months 3 days	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2243		20 August 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
222	21 August 1885	Daniel McCallum Margaret McIntosh	Daniel McCallum Margaret McIntosh 💍 1885/2207	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 6 months	Home of Mr. McCallum, Arthur Street	85/2246	John McIntosh, Father	21 August 1885	Rev. P. W. Jones
223	24 August 1885	Mark Franklin Annie Glasgow Seer	Mark Franklin Annie Glasgow Teer 💍 1885/2192	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 28	Wellington Wellington	6 days	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2244		24 August 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
224	25 August 1885	George Swann Ross Lucy Frances Cross	George Swann Ross Lucy Frances Cross 💍 1885/2193	Widower Spinster	Boiler Maker	40 22	Wellington Wellington	3 months 1 year	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2245		25 August 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
225	25 August 1885	Thomas Canby Lucy Hutchison	Thomas Canty Lucy Hutchison 💍 1885/2170	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	24 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years	Home of Mr. Canby, Sydney Street	85/2272	Catherine Hutchison, Mother	25 August 1885	Mr. J. F. Floyd, Baptist
226	26 August 1885	John William Bragg Annie Laurie Baxter	John William Bragg Annie Laurie Bowstock 💍 1885/2173	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 1 week	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2252	No parent in Colony	9 September 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
227	26 August 1885	George William Hobbs Emma Hooper	George William Stobbs Emma Cooper 💍 1885/2194	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver	34 27	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 week	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2246		26 August 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
228	29 August 1885	William Munns Kate Halpin	William Munns Kate Halpin 💍 1885/2195	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 1 month	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2247		29 August 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
229	31 August 1885	Charles Henry Walter Dixon Helen Augusta Percival Jordan	Charles Henry Walter Dixon Helen Augusta Percival Jordon 💍 1885/2162	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	21 23	Wellington Wellington	3 months 4 years	Residence of Rev. W. L. Oliver, Taranaki Street	85/2265		31 August 1885	Rev. W. L. Oliver
230	1 September 1885	Frederick George Tweney Louisa Caroline Hodger	Frederick George Twomey Louisa Caroline Hodgson 💍 1885/2171	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	19 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years	Home of Mr. Hodger, Roxburgh Street	85/2273	Richard Tweney, Father	15 September 1885	Mr. J. F. Floyd, Baptist
231	2 September 1885	James Buchanan Mary Buchton	James Buchanan Mary Crighton 💍 1885/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 23	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	16 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2248		2 September 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
232	4 September 1885	George Walter Wheeler Elizabeth Taylor	George Walter Wheeler Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1885/2155	Bachelor Widow	Shipwright	37 32	Wellington Wellington	4 years	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/2250		4 September 1885	W. D. Wyatt, Registrar

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).