Intentions to Marry, 1881

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840393, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

Page 746

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1881

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
387	19 December 1881	James Grunwell Sumpson Ada Best	James Grunwell Simpson Ada Best 💍 1881/2792	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Weaver	27 22	Sydenham Sydenham	4 years 4 days	In the of Mr. W. Best	81/2865		December 19	Rev R. Taylor Methodist
388	19 December 1881	Frederick William Brunette Lilian Harriet Birdsey	Frederick William Brunette Lilian Harriet Birdsey 💍 1881/3078	Bachelor Spinster	Carriage Treasurer	21 22	Christchurch Tuam Street	11 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	81/236		December 19	Rev C. Fraser. Presbyterian
389	19 December 1881	Herbert Meadowcroft Alice Galagall	Herbert Meadowcroft Alice Gahagan 💍 1881/2791	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 26	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 26 years	In the Wesley an Church	81/2864		December 19	Rev A Reid Wesleyan
390	20 December 1881	Richard Dyer Mary Cence	Richard Dyer Mary Ann Hayman Norris 💍 1881/2823	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 10 years	In F. Lulles Church	81/2825		December 20	Rev L. A. Lingard Church of England
391	20 December 1881	Michael Cook Jane Edwards	Michael Cook Jane Edwards 💍 1882/601	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	23 19	Woolston Christchurch	6 years 1 month	In the Registrars Office		Mc/persons authority to consent	December [illegible]	Regr
392	21 December 1881	Kenneth Beecham Elizabeth Davis	Kennett Beecham Elizabeth Davis 💍 1881/2821	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	28 27	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years	In F. Lukes Church	81/2823		December 21	Rev. L. A. Lingard Church of England
393	22 December 1881	Hugh Franklin Stiehl Catherine Callan	Hugh Franklin Stiche Catherine Callan 💍 1881/2856	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 2 years	In the Registrars Office	81/2885		December 22	Registrar Marriages J. J. Malleson
394	23 December 1881	John James Collins Lena Walkden	John James Collins Arabella Eliza Walkden 💍 1882/890	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 8 years	In the Avonside Church	82/480		December 23	Rev W. A. Pascoe Church of England

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).