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 601

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 September 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
596	2 July 1882	Patrick Sherlock Mary Ann Demon	Patrick Sherlock Mary Ann Lloyd 💍 1892/2461	Bachelor Widow	Barrister Publican	47 35	Westport Westport	9 years 9 years	Roman Catholic Church	92/2460		2 July 1882	Thomas Walsh
597	11 July 1882	John O'Brien Annie Demmery	John O'Brien Annie Hennessy 💍 1892/2462	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Waimangaroa Waimangaroa	14 years 16 years	Roman Catholic Church	92/2461		11 July 1882	Thomas Walsh
598	30 July 1882	Abel Tasman Gilbertson Elizabeth Luff	Abel Tasman Gilbertson Elizabeth Leiff 💍 1892/2464	Bachelor Spinster	Trimmer	24 18	Westport Westport	18 months 15 years	Residence of Rev. James Wrigley, Westport	92/2463	Arthur Frederick Luff, Father of bride	30 July 1882	James Wrigley
599	18 August 1882	Daniel Wilson Killmah Cot	Daniel Wilson Keturah Cox 💍 1892/2466	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 15	Denniston Waimangaroa	4 years 6 years	At Waimangaroa	92/2465	William Cot, Father of bride	18 August 1882	George Grindley
600	22 August 1882	William Jensen Ada Dale		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	23 23	Denniston Westport	6 months 2 months	Registrars Office
601	13 September 1882	James Alexander Macdonell Margaret West Munro	James Alexander Macdonell Margaret West Munro 💍 1892/3664	Bachelor Spinster	Doctor of Medicine	38 22	Westport Westport	3 years 2 years	Miners Westport	92/3956		13 September 1882	John Hall
602	24 September 1882	William Sherlock Hannah Roach	William Sherlock Hannah Roach 💍 1892/2484	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	52 36	Brith Creek Westport	1 year 4 months	Roman Catholic Church	92/2459		24 September 1882	John J. Morrissey
603	26 September 1882	John Anderson Rhoda Denston	John Henderson Phoebe Denston 💍 1892/3260	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	24 22	Denniston Denniston	12 months 6 months	House of Mr Samuel	92/2495		26 September 1882	George Grindley
604	29 September 1882	Stephen Veitch Mary Jane Stokes	Stephen Veitch Mary Jane Stokes 💍 1892/2463	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	26 19	Westport Amley St Westport	18 months 18 months	House of Mr Stokes	92/2462	Edward Stokes, Father of bride	29 September 1882	James Wrigley

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).