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 723

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
214	July 1881	George Paulling Isabella Ronna Beanley	George Parkinson Isabella Rosina Beazley 💍 1881/2764	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 14 days	In the House, Port Levy, of Rev C. Fraser	81/12834		July 15 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
215	July 1881	Walter Suckling Evelyn Parvitt	Walter Suckling Evelyn Pavitt 💍 1881/1923	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	33 25	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 3 months	In the Registrars Office	81/1959		July 15 1881	Registrar Marriages
216	July 1881	George Frederic Gee Catherine Hamilton	George Frederick Gee Catherine Hamilton 💍 1881/2765	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Smith Machinist	21 19	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 19 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	81/12838	Hamilton, Mother	July 18 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
217	July 1881	Wilfred Ward Ellen Jane Sulliens	Wilfred Ward Ellen Jane Jenkins 💍 1881/2064	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	34 29	Christchurch Lyttelton	3 days 14 years	In the Church, Avonside	81/2107		July 18 1881	Rev W. A. Pascoe Church of England
218	July 1881	Aaron Godfrey Mary Gilbert	Aaron Godfrey Mary Gilbert 💍 1881/2031	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 1 year	In St Lukes, Southbridge Church	81/2044		July 19 1881	Rev T. A. Leigard Church of England
219	July 1881	John Robert Nicholls Emma Priscilla Watling	John Robert Nicholls Emma Priscilla Watling 💍 1881/2228	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	22 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	In the House of Rev T. A. Cato	81/12260		July 20 1881	Rev T. A. Cato Baptist
220	July 1881	Henry Ryder Elizabeth Wallis	Henry Ryder Elizabeth Wallis 💍 1881/2767	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 weeks	In the House of Rev C. Fraser, Lyttelton	81/12840		July 20 1881	Rev C. Fraser Presbyterian
221	July 1881	John Thorne Jessie Ann Alston	John Thorn Jessie Ann Alston 💍 1881/1958	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	30 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 years	In St Pauls Church	81/1971	James Alston, Father	July 22 1881	Rev I. Elmslie 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).