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 713

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
134	12 May 1881	George Dann Elizabeth Warren	George Dan Elizabeth Warren 💍 1881/1130	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 22	Waltham Waltham	1 month 1 month	In the House of Miss Clemens	81/1093		May 12 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
135	13 May 1881	Horace Daniel Price Elizabeth Hunt	Horace Daniel Pine Elizabeth Hunt 💍 1881/1126	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Servant	24 24	St. Albans Christchurch	18 years	In the Wesleyan Church St. Albans	81/1091		May 13 1881	Rev. J. Buller Wesleyan
136	13 May 1881	Patrick Power Margaret Councell	Patrick Power Margaret Connell 💍 1881/1095 Patrick Power Bridget Lynch 💍 1881/1902	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 24	Sydenham Sydenham	1 month 1 month	In the Roman Catholic Church Christchurch	81/1054		May 13 1881	Rev. L. Ginaty Roman Catholic
137	13 May 1881	James Edmund Margaret Clemens	James Edmond Margaret Clemens 💍 1881/1131	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Housekeeper	25 24	Sydenham Sydenham	3 months 3 months	In the House of Margaret Clemens	81/1094		May 13 1881	Rev E. R. Cains Presbyterian
138	14 May 1881	John Burns Mary Gates	John Dunn Mary Oates 💍 1881/1133 John Boon Mary Galletly 💍 1881/1102 John Hayes Mary Martin 💍 1881/738 John Brick Mary Daly 💍 1882/1040	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Servant	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 6 years	In the House of Mr. A. Chidgey	81/1093		May 14 1881	Rev C. Dallaston Baptist
139	14 May 1881	John Brown Annie Clark	John Brown Annie Clark 💍 1881/1981	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	38 32	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 5 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	81/1094		May 14 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
140	14 May 1881	Thomas French Mary Ann Woolcock	Thomas French Mary Ann Woolcock 💍 1881/1125	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	21 18	Sydenham Sydenham	5 years 3 years	In the house of H. French	81/1089	John Woolcock Father	May 14 1881	Rev. J. Buller Wesleyan
141	16 May 1881	Everard Cecil Farr Catherine Ford	Everard Cecil Farr Catherine Ford 💍 1881/1535	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	19 Years 15 Years	St Johns Church	81/1033		May 16 1881	Rev H. C. M. Watson 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).