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 720

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
190	24 June 1881	Leonard Bertram Margaret Burns	Leonard Bertram Hubbard Margaret Bevins 💍 1881/2032	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	21 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 19 years	In St Lukes Church	81/2045		June 24 1881	Rev E. A Lingard Church of England
191	25 June 1881	Francis Brunn Annie McWilliams	Francis Bruni Annie McWilliams 💍 1881/1099	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	33 33	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 months	In the Roman Catholic Church	81/1061		June 25 1881	Rev L. Ginaty Roman Catholic
192	25 June 1881	John Ashton Jessie Swanson	John Ashton Jessie Swanson 💍 1881/1970	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	27 23	Fendalton Fendalton	2 years 2 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	8/2007		June 25 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
193	25 June 1881	Edward Simmons Johanna Simmons	Edward Simmonds Johanna Simmonds 💍 1881/1149	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	33 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 days	In the Registrars Office	8/1118		June 25 1881	Registrar Marriages Mallerson
194	27 June 1881	Carl Andersen Rasmine Nielsen	Carl Andersen Rasmine Nielsen 💍 1881/1124	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 18	Christchurch Waltham	3 days 4 days	In the Lutheran Church	81/1088	Nielsen Father	June 27 1881	Rev P Jacobsen Lutheran
195	28 June 1881	Thomas Cole Louisa Boielle	Thomas Cole Louisa Boielle 💍 1881/1148	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 3 years	In the Registrars Office	81/19		June 28 1881	Registrar Marriages Mallerson
196	28 June 1881	William Ferguson Charlotte Eustace	William Ferguson Charlotte Eustance 💍 1881/1972	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 14 days	In the House of Mrs Ferguson	8/2008		June 28 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
197	29 June 1881	Walter Buckingham Selina Martha Lucas	Walter Buckingham Selina Martha Lucas 💍 1881/1150	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	33 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 17 years	In the Registrars Office	8/1119		June 29 1881	Registrar Marriages Mallerson

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).