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 671

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 31 December 1872 Registrar A H 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
385	10 October 1882	David Adamson Jane McLead	David Adamson Jane McLeod 💍 1882/3056	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Housewife	33 23	Southbrook Rangiora	1 1/2 yrs	Dwelling House	82/3004		10 October	Rev. Mr. Gregor
386	4 November 1882	Robert Cloud Martin Narriet Ellis	Robert Eldred Martin Reeve Harriet Jane Ellis 💍 1882/3059	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	49 21	Rangiora Rangiora	18 yrs 1 1/4 yrs	Dwelling House	82/3007		4 November	Rev. John Smith
387	11 November 1882	Edward Goodwin Eliza Maria Scaley	Edward Goodwin Eliza Maria Sealey 💍 1882/3057	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer School Mistress	25 20	Southbrook Southbrook	3 days 3 days	Church of England, Rangiora	82/3005	Betsey Scaley, Mother	11 November	Rev. B. W. Dudley
388	14 November 1882	Henry George Sheppard Alice Matilda Defatherin	Henry George Sheppard Alice Matilda Catherine Lilly 💍 1882/3058	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper not any	28 30	Christchurch Rangiora	9 yrs 20 yrs	Rangiora, Christchurch	82/3006	John Lilly, Father	17 November	Rev. B. W. Dudley
389	19 December 1882	George Colin Elizabeth Bloomfield	George Edlin Elizabeth Bloomfield 💍 1883/663	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer not any	21 19	Southbrook Rangiora	14 yrs 3 months	Free Methodist	83/419	Henry Bloomfield, Father	19 December	Rev. V. Macfarlane
390	20 December 1882	John McAleer Eliza McAnally	John McAleer Eliza McAnally 💍 1883/664	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist Domestic Servant	28 24	Rangiora Rangiora	5 yrs 1 yr	Roman Catholic	83/420		20 December	R. Catholic Church

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).