Intentions to Marry, 1882

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840394, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 665

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar A. Cunningham

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
358	07 January 1882	William Botts Ellen O'Rourke	William Dobbs Ellen O'Rourke 💍 1882/621	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	68 21	Riverside Rangiora Riverside	19 years 19 years	Office of Registrar	82/1474		07 January 1882	A. Cunningham Registrar
359	11 January 1882	Thomas McMullen Mary McCauce	Thomas McMullen Mary McCann 💍 1882/617	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	28 25	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church	82/1471		11 January 1882	Rev. L.M. Benefield Roman Catholic
360	16 January 1882	John Quinlan Bridget Fitzgibbon	John Quinlan Bridget Fitzgibbon 💍 1882/618	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman not any	30 26	North Loburn Loburn	1/2 year 4 days	Roman Catholic Church	82/1472		16 January 1882	Rev. L.M. Benefield Roman Catholic
361	06 February 1882	Thomas Cottle Sarah Burrell	Thomas Cottle Sarah Bursill 💍 1882/615	Bachelor Widow	Farmer not any	36 53	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 4 years	Church of England	82/1469		06 February 1882	Rev. H.W. Budley Church of England
362	13 February 1882	Patrick Bourke Mary Carboy	Patrick Bourke Mary Curboy 💍 1882/620	Bachelor Spinster	Plate Layer Domestic Servant	58 36	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 4 days	Roman Catholic Church	82/1473		13 February 1882	Rev. L.M. Benefield Roman Catholic
363	04 March 1882	William Edlin Phoebe Hawrah Brown	William Edlin Phoebe Hannah Brown 💍 1882/879	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer not any	25 18	Woodend Rangiora Woodend	20 years 18 years	Church of England	82/1479	Luke Brown Father	04 March 1882	Rev. C.H. Gjoitt Church of England
364	22 March 1882	Charles King Catherine Sophie Lewin Borkman	Charles King Catherine Sophia Fredericka Bockmann 💍 1882/2008	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dom. Servant	33 21	Flaxton Rangiora Flaxton	20 weeks 10 weeks	[illegible]	82/2145	Joslin Borkman Father	23 March 1882	H.P. Stunwood [illegible]
365	23 March 1882	Frederick Jas Hagerman Margaret Lewin Beinting	Frederick James Hayman Margaret Anne Bunting 💍 1882/1389	Bachelor Spinster	Boot Maker not any	24 22	Ashley Rangiora Ashley	1/2 years 1 year	United Methodist Church	82/1280		23 March 1882	Rev. S. Mayshone United Methodist Church
366	24 March 1882	Donald McIntyre Sarah Jewell	Daniel McIntyre Sarah Fennell 💍 1882/616	Widower Widow	Farmer not any	44 46	Fernside Fernside	20 years 13 years	Church of England	82/1440		27 March 1882	Rev. I.S. Budley 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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).