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 702

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
71	9 March 1881	Thomas Gordon Catherine Margaret Laurie	Thomas Gordon Catherine Margaret Laurie 💍 1881/475	Bachelor Spinster	Secretary Drainage Board	31 23	St. Albans Christchurch	20 years 18 years	St. Julies Church	81/1413		March 9 1881	Rev E. a Lingard Church of England
72	12 March 1881	Arthur Montgomery Julia Hogan	Arthur Montgomery Julia Hogan 💍 1881/468	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	34 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St Michaels Church	81/1356		March 12 1881	Rev E. G. Penny Church of England
73	12 March 1881	Alfred James Lewis Elizabeth Hopsflesh	Alfred James Lewis Elizabeth Hogsflesh 💍 1881/482	Widower Widow	Surveyor	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 Years 2 Years	The Phillipstown Church	81/1402		March 12 1881	Rev H. C. M. Watson Church of England
74	16 March 1881	Robert Spencer Marion Elizabeth Allison	Robert Spencer Marion Allison 💍 1881/477	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	22 18	Coleridge town Christchurch	1 Year 18 years	The Kaiapoi town Church	81/1415	Elizabeth Allison, Mother	March 16 1881	Rev R. A. Mortimer Church of England
75	17 March 1881	John Evans Louisa Dowdall	John Evans Louisa Dowelle 💍 1881/2005	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	26 22	Addington Addington	1 Year 6 Months	The Church of St Andrews	81/2019		March 17 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
76	21 March 1881	John Whitchison Sarah মাতা Jepson	John Hutchison Sarah Mata Jepson 💍 1881/515	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	The Registrars Office	81/1429	Registrar of Marriages, Father	March 21 1881	M Matheson
77	21 March 1881	Thomas Milliner Rachel Ashton	Thomas Milner Rachel Ashton 💍 1881/516	Widower Spinster	Housedealer Dressmaker	40 16	Christchurch Christchurch	5 Years 16 Years	The Registrars Office	81/1430	Sampson Ashton, Father	March 21 1881	M Matheson Registrar of Marriages
78	22 March 1881	Edwin Clark Mary Ann Kerr	Edwin Clark Mary Ann Kerr 💍 1881/762	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	27 18	Coleridge town St. Albans	10 days 6 years	The House of Mrs Kerr	81/1444	William Kerr, Mother	March 22 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian

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).