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 708

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
94	11 April 1881	Edward Piper Jane Wilkinson	John Edward Piper Jane Wilkinson 💍 1881/1132	Widower Spinster	Brickmaker	34 36	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	St Mary's Church	81/1095		April 11	Rev H. East, Church of England
95	11 April 1881	James Binney Fanny Ellen Davis	James Binney Whyte Fanny Ellen Davis 💍 1881/1116	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 18	Sydenham Sydenham	6 months 2 years	Addington, In the house of Mr. Davis	81/1041	Isaiah David, father	April 11	Rev C. Dallaston, Baptist
96	13 April 1881	William John Pepper Annie Davison	William John Pepper Anne Davison 💍 1881/1114	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	23 18	St Albans Kaiapoi Road	2 years 18 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	81/1053	William Davison, Father	April 13	Rev L. Ginaty, Roman Catholic
97	13 April 1881	George William Smith Elizabeth Paterson	George William Leadley Elizabeth Smith Patterson 💍 1881/1152 George Gellatty Elizabeth Aitken 💍 1881/703	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Prebbleton Prebbleton	5 days 18 years	In the House of Mrs Paterson	81/1120		April 13	Rev A Blake, Presbyterian
98	14 April 1881	Alfred Evans Phoebe Theresa Winter	Alfred Evans Phoebe Theresa Winter 💍 1881/1534	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 7 years	In St. John's Church	81/532		April 14	Rev H. C. M. Watson, Church of England
99	14 April 1881	Thomas Barry Mary Cooke	Thomas Barry Mary Cooke 💍 1881/1127	Bachelor Spinster	Book Keeper Servant	29 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the House of Mr. Smallwood	81/1042		April 14	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
100	19 April 1881	Alexander Farquhar Monica Ada Roseoe		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 years	In the House of Mrs. Roseoe	81/1395		April 19	Rev I. Elmslie, Presbyterian
101	19 April 1881	James Clive Mary Ann Mulliss	James Clive Mary Ann Mullis 💍 1881/1153	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	35 24	Prebbleton Prebbleton	4 years 6 years	In the Prebbleton Church	81/1121		April 19	Rev C. Bowen, 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).