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 733

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
294	26 September 1881	Robert Coleman Sophia Etheridge	Robert Coleman Fanny Sophia Etheridge 💍 1881/2014	Widower Widow	Labourer	43 33	St. Albans St. Albans	18 years 2 years	In the St. Helles Church	81/2051	September 26	Rev. H. A. Lingard, Church of England
295	27 September 1881	Walter Coster Helen McFarlane	Walter Coster Gee Helen McFarlane 💍 1881/2013 Walter Charles Nichols Helen Macfarlane 💍 1881/1076	Bachelor Spinster	Blind manufacturer	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 6 days	In the St. Helles Church	81/2050	September 29	Rev. H. A. Lingard, Church of England
296	28 September 1881	George Digby Whybra Gouson	George Digby Whybra Tomson 💍 1881/1955	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	21 20	Sydenham Sydenham	2 years 2 years	In the Registrars Office	81/1968	September 28	Registrar of Marriages, J. J. Patterson
297	29 September 1881	John Towsey Christiana Lyon	John Jowsey Christina Lyon 💍 1881/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	20 22	Sydenham Christchurch	3 months 14 days	In the House	81/1969		J. Ward, Primitive
298	29 September 1881	Walter Brockett Plena Lewis	Walter Brockett Eliza Lewis 💍 1881/2774	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	24 26	Christchurch Bangorland	5 years 3 years	In the Aouside	81/2871	September 29	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
299	30 September 1881	Henry Davis Annie Gray	Henry Davis Annie Gray 💍 1881/3155	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	12 days 12 days	In the St. Michaels Church	81/2052	September 30	Rev. H. G. Penny, Church of England

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).