Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 847

District of Mataura Quarter ending 30 June 1882

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
133	11 April 1882	George Bigwood Edith Maud Fielder	George Bigwood Edith Maude Gilder 💍 1892/1823	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 25	Mataura Mataura	16 years 10 years	at the residence of George Bigwood, Mataura	92/1855		11 April 1882	Rev. J. Mc. Davidson, Presbyterian
134	18 April 1882	John Hamilton Tennant Elizabeth Ada Walton	John Hamilton Tennant Elizabeth Ada Walton 💍 1892/1828	Bachelor Spinster	Waterproof Manufacturer	23 26	Mataura Mataura	3 days 8 years	at the residence of The Cullen	92/1856		18 April 1882	Rev. J. Mc. Davidson, Presbyterian
135	23 April 1882	Robert McLaughlan Mary Ann Rebecca Bigwood	Robert McCaughan Mary Ann Rebecca Bigwood 💍 1892/1829	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 19	Mataura Mataura	3 days 15 years	at the residence of John Bigwood, Mataura	92/1857	John Bigwood, Father	23 April 1882	Rev. J. Mc. Davidson, Presbyterian
136	14 May 1882	George Walter Blondell Ellen Ann Goldsmith	George Walter Blondell Ellen Ann Goldsmith 💍 1892/1832	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Mataura Mataura	3 months 8 years	at the Registry Office, Mataura	92/1860		14 May 1882	T. Palmer, Registrar
137	31 May 1882	John Waddell Margaret Palmer	John Waddell Margaret Palmer 💍 1892/1830	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Mataura Mataura	10 years 21 years	at the residence of Tom Palmer, Mataura	92/1858		31 May 1882	Rev. J. Mc. Davidson, Presbyterian
138	20 June 1882	William James Irwin Margaret Annie McCubbin	William James Irwin Margaret Annie McCubbin 💍 1892/1831	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 19	Mataura Mataura	12 years 6 months	at the residence of Jas. McCubbin, Mataura	92/1859	James McCubbin, Father	20 June 1882	Rev. J. Mc. Davidson, Presbyterian

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).