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 683

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 30 June 1882 Registrar Samuel Johnston

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
511	04 April 1882	William Everest Elizabeth Lissaman	William Everist Elizabeth Lissaman 💍 1882/1375	Bachelor Spinster	Captain Domestic duties	31 29	Flaxton Flaxton	3 days 3 days	Flaxton Church	82/1293		04 April 1882	Rev. F. R. Inwood
512	18 April 1882	William Gudsell Jessie Duffull	William Gudsell Jessie Duffull 💍 1882/1353	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Teacher	21 20	Ohoka Ohoka	3 days 20 years	Church	82/1294	Richard Duffull father	18 April 1882	Rev. F. R. Inwood
513	20 April 1882	William James Preece Jane Elizabeth Allen	James William Preece Jane Elizabeth Allen 💍 1882/1393	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic duties	23 18	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	21 years 6 years	Wm Keeley's residence Kaiapoi	82/1284	William F. Keeley Step-father	20 April 1882	Rev. D. C. Hampton
514	27 April 1882	Edward Chilton Elizabeth Hollingworth Butters	Edward Chilton Elizabeth Hollingsworth Butters 💍 1882/1371	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	24 19	Eyretown Eyretown	17 years 19 years	Thorns Chilton's residence Eyretown	82/1289	Edward Butters father	27 April 1882	Rev. W. MacGregor
515	06 May 1882	Charles Packwood Margaret Greer	Charles Packwood Margaret Greer 💍 1882/1372 Walter Anderson Margaret Greer 💍 1882/744	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Matron	26 21	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	4 years	Registrar's Office Kaiapoi	82/1290		06 May 1882	The Registrar
516	22 May 1882	James Whitehead Maria Taylor	James Whitehead Maria Taylor 💍 1882/1363 James Lawler Mary Taylor 💍 1882/1949	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer General Servant	30 17	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	18 years 17 years	Church of England Kaiapoi	82/1286	Ann Taylor mother	22 May 1882	Rev. D. C. Hampton
517	10 June 1882	James Hurse Mary Pauline Browne	James Hurse Mary Pauline Forfar Browne 💍 1882/1369	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	42 18	Kaiapoi Southbrook	18 years 3 years	Church of England Kaiapoi Rangiora	82/1384		10 June 1882	Rev. D. C. Hampton
518	10 June 1882	John Thomas Bettel Charlotte Harrison Keetter	John Thomas George Bettel Charlotte Harrison Keetly 💍 1882/1352	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter General Servant	24 23	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	1 year 1 year	Residence of the Bride's mother	82/1285		10 June 1882	Rev. F. H. Simmonds

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).