Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 701

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
433	30 November 1880	William Thomas Ellis Jane Starkey Smith	William Thomas Ellis Jane Harvey Smith 💍 1880/682	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the house of Mr. Ellis	80/12702		30 November 1880	Rev. J.S. Richardson
434	3 December 1880	Henry Kennett Annie Andrews	Henry Kennett Annie Andrews 💍 1880/205	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 18	Springston Christchurch	3 years 1 year	In the Registrar's Office	80/12745	No person having authority to consent	18 December 1880	Registrar Marriages
435	7 December 1880	Stephen Ryan Catherine Keenan	Stephen Ryan Catherine Keenan 💍 1880/676	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	31 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	80/12696		7 December 1880	Rev. D. Guinity, Roman Catholic
436	7 December 1880	Robert Waldon Rosina Hurrell	Robert Waldin Gratham Rhoda Rosina Harrell 💍 1880/219	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 3 years	In St. John's Church	80/12741		7 December 1880	Rev. H.C.M. Watson
437	9 December 1880	Joseph Burrows Mary Maxwell	Joseph Burrows Mary Maxwell 💍 1880/772	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 21	Springston Springston	1 year 1 year	In the Wesleyan Chapel	80/12682		9 December 1880	Rev. J.S. Smalley, Wesleyan
438	10 December 1880	Arthur Theobald Louisa Duke		Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 3 years	In St. Michael's Church	80/12644		10 December 1880	Rev. J.G. Penny
439	13 December 1880	James William Agnes Power		Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Servant	25 23	Papanui Papanui	21 years 5 years	In the Papanui Church	80/12698		13 December 1880	Rev. F.G. Brittan
440	13 December 1880	Thomas Francis Rachel Robin	Thomas Francis Bucknell Rachel Robinson 💍 1880/752	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 21	Templeton Leeston	4 years 6 years	In St. Andrews Church	80/12736		13 December 1880	Rev. C. Fraser, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).