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 717

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
166	4 June 1881	John Edward Polson Helen C Sullivan	John Edward Polson Helen O'Sullivan 💍 1881/1963	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter Servant	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks years	the House of Rev C. Fraser	81/[illegible]		June 4 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
167	6 June 1881	William Charles Symes Mary Priest	William Charles John Symes Mary Priest 💍 1881/1134	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Baptist Chapel Oxford Terrace	81/1074		June 6 1881	Rev C. Dallaston Baptist
168	7 June 1881	Richard Henry Lawry Elizabeth Ann Martin	Richard Henry Lawry Elizabeth Ann Martin 💍 1881/1142	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 21	Sydenham Christchurch	2 Years 2 Years	Registrar's Office	81/1111		June 7 1881	Registrar of Marriages, M Wilkerson
169	8 June 1881	Robert Brown Jane Broadfoot	Robert Brown Jane Broadfoot 💍 1881/2030	Bachelor	Labourer	20 24	Papanui Kaiapoi	3 years 3 weeks	St Helles Church	81/2043	No person having authority	June 22 1881	Rev E. A. Lingard Church of England
170	8 June 1881	Thomas Seares Florence Piper	Thomas Seares Florence Piper 💍 1881/1141	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 4 days	Registrars Office	81/1410	John Piper, Father	June 8 1881	Registrar Marriages, M Wilkerson
171	10 June 1881	Frank White Mary Bunting	Frank White Mary Jane Bunting 💍 1881/1154	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	Church, Halkett	81/1180		June 10 1881	Rev H. Collins
172	10 June 1881	Thomas Hedwick Richenda Haddrook		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Christchurch Cust	20 years	Church, Cust	81/1125		June 10 1881	Rev E. R. Otway Church of England
173	13 June 1881	John Johnston Margaret Harrison	John Johnson Margaret Carson 💍 1881/1984 John Johnston McConnell Margaret Hughes 💍 1882/869 John Glenn Margaret Howat Carson 💍 1881/2164 John Goslin Margaret Bourke 💍 1881/1448	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks	the House of Mr Fraser, Tuam Street	81/1994		June 13 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).