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 681

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar [illegible]

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
502	9 January 1882	William Dean Leonora Juty	William Dean Leonora Jury 💍 1882/2043	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer General Servant	26 19	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	10 weeks 3 months	Registrar's Office	82/2178	Robert Juty, Father	9 January 1882	The Registrar Kaiapoi
503	9 January 1882	[illegible] Anne Wilson		[illegible] Spinster	[illegible] Domestic duties	[illegible] 28	[illegible] Kaiapoi	[illegible] 20 years	Kaiapoi Parish	82/2184		9 January 1882	Rev B.W. Dudley, [illegible]
504	18 January 1882	Thomas Turnbull William Moore		Bachelor Bachelor	Accountant Farm Labourer	28 28	Timaru Kaiapoi	15 years 5 years	Church Timaru	82/2183		18 January 1882	Rev D.O. Hampton, [illegible]
504	18 January 1882	William Moore Sarah Taylor	William Moore Sarah Taylor 💍 1882/2051 William Brown Isabella Taylor 💍 1882/2275 William Burton Harriet Taylor 💍 1882/287	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Dressmaker	28 27	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	5 years 18 years	Parish Church	82/2183		30 January 1882	Rev W. Macgregor, [illegible]
505	30 January 1882	David Miller Jane Duncan	David Miller Jane Hunter Duncan 💍 1882/2052	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic duties	26 27	Eyreton Eyreton	1 year 4 days	Residence of R. Miller, Eyreton	82/2186		4 February 1882	[illegible] Simmonds, [illegible]
506	4 February 1882	George Alfred Broadley Elizabeth Maria Stanton	George Alfred Broadley Elizabeth Maria Stanton 💍 1882/2044	Bachelor Spinster	Card Cleaner Weaver	21 21	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	2 years 21 years	Wesleyan Church	82/2179		4 February 1882	[illegible]
507	27 February 1882	Andrew Sloan Simpson Mary Campbell	Andrew Sloan Simpson Mary Campbell 💍 1882/2045 William Knox Mary Campbell 💍 1882/356	Bachelor Spinster	Agent Weaver	24 20	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	14 years 7 years	Presbyterian Church	82/2180	William Campbell, Father	27 February 1882	Rev Robert Macgregor, Pres
508	11 March 1882	William Christie Sarah Jane Drabble	William Christie Sarah Jane Drabble 💍 1882/2048	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Weaver	22 23	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	1 year 7 years	Presbyterian Church	82/2182		11 March 1882	Rev Robert Macgregor, Pres
509	11 March 1882	George Andrew Spillard Jane Nunkevis Hoskin	George Andrew Spillard Jane Nankervois Hoskin 💍 1882/2047	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Weaver	20 21	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	3 years 7 years	Presbyterian Church	82/2181		11 March 1882	Rev Robert Macgregor, Pres

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).