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 704

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
457	29 December 1880	Frank Dossett Harriet Conn	Frank Doell Harriet Conn 💍 1881/3290	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Proprietor	30 30	Riccarton Riccarton	16 years 14 months	In the Riccarton Church	81/449		29 December 1880	Rev. J. Chaffers Welch
458	29 December 1880	Albert Russell Jessie Cawood	Albert Russell Jessie Cawood 💍 1880/207	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 20	Sydenham Waltham	5 years 16 years	In the Registrars Office	80/253	Alfred Cawood, Father	29 December 1880	J. Makceson
459	29 December 1880	James Beathe Helen McKerracher	James Beattie Helen McKenacher 💍 1880/514	Widower Spinster	Dressmaker	29 28	Sydenham Sydenham	5 years 18 months	In the House of Mr. McKerracher	80/306		29 December 1880	Rev. T. R. Caverhill
460	29 December 1880	Harry Hill Emily Peacock	Harry Hill Emily Peacock 💍 1881/489	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	21 21	Sydenham Sydenham	3 years 18 months	In the Wesleyan Church	81/403		29 December 1880	Rev. C. Reid
461	30 December 1880	James Pannell Ellen Buttersby	James Pepperell Ellen Butcher 💍 1880/208	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Servant	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 1 year	In the Registrars Office	80/357		30 December 1880	J. Makceson
462	30 December 1880	Charles Edward Hoddinott Agnes Griffiths	Charles Edward Hoddinatt Agnes Griffiths 💍 1881/456 Charles Henry Wilkinson Sarah Agnes Griffiths 💍 1880/74	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	22 19	Christchurch Sydenham	6 years 6 years	In the Wesleyan Church	81/367	Mrs. Jenson having written authority to consent	30 December 1880	J. Redwood
463	30 December 1880	Frederick Joseph Caroline Russell	Frederick Joseph Simpkin Julia Caroline Russell 💍 1881/512	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	22 26	Merivale	3 years 2 years	St. Johns Church			30 December 1880	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
464	30 December 1880	Isaac Warengarb Uenabrith Chapman	Isaac Mazengarb Charlotte Elizabeth Chapman 💍 1880/209	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 14 days	In the Registrars Office	80/255		30 December 1880	J. Makceson

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).