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 742

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
355	22 November 1881	John Kilbride Mary Ann Spinsted	John Kilbride Maryanne Elizabeth Curran 💍 1881/3251	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 17	Christchurch Halswell	3 days 17 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	81/3211	Curran Southbridge Father	22 November 1881	Rev L. Ginaty
356	22 November 1881	James Anderson Eliza Ash	James Anderson Eliza Ash 💍 1881/2836	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	21 21	Sydenham Prebbleton	6 months 7 years	In the [illegible] Church	81/2814		22 November 1881	Rev E. R. Cairus
357	23 November 1881	George William Cotton Ann Smith	George William Cotton Ann Smith 💍 1881/2775 William Garrick Ann Smith 💍 1881/610	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	20 20	Beingsland Christchurch	4 years 3 years	In the [illegible] Church	81/2812	William Smith Fathers	23 November 1881	Rev W a Pascoe
358	23 November 1881	Peter Swanson Lizzie Clear	Peter Swanson Lizzie Clear 💍 1881/2784	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the Registrars Office	81/2880		23 November 1881	Registrar Marriages
359	24 November 1881	Thomas Powrie Alice Painton	Thomas Powell Alice Painton 💍 1881/2785	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	24 17	Prebbleton Prebbleton	4 years 8 years	In the Registrars Office	81/2881	Thomas Painton Father	24 November 1881	Registrar Marriages
360	24 November 1881	William Mulqueen Rose McClory	William Mulguin Rose McCloy 💍 1881/3254	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	24 26	Riccarton Riccarton	2 months 5 months	In the Roman Catholic Church	81/3214		24 November 1881	Roman Catholic
361	26 November 1881	William Clougher Mary Scanlan	William Cloughen Mary Scanlan 💍 1881/3255	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	40 22	Harewood Road Harewood Road	15 months 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	81/3215		26 November 1881	Rev.d. kingly
362	28 November 1881	Henry Lee Catherine Dawber	Henry Lee Catherine Dawber 💍 1881/2837	Bachelor Widow	Engineer	26 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Opawa Church	81/2815		28 November 1881	Rev G. I. Cholmondeley

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).