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 718

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1882 Registrar M Parkerson

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
[illegible]	April 24 1882	Jane Kerr [illegible]		Spinster [illegible]	[illegible] [illegible]	21 [illegible]	Christchurch [illegible]	2 years Durham Street [illegible]	[illegible]	[illegible]	[illegible]	[illegible]	[illegible]
132	April 1882	John Hallegan Margaret Robinson	John Halligan Margaret Jane Robinson 💍 1882/33	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 20	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years in the House 20 years in Durham Street	& Rev C. Fraser	82/1399	John Robinson, Father	April 21 1882	Rev C. Fraser, Presbyterian
133	April 21 1882	Corona Burischek [illegible]		Spinster [illegible]	Dressmaker [illegible]	19 [illegible]	Christchurch [illegible]	11 years in St Johns Church [illegible]	[illegible]	82/1324	Joseph Burischek, Father	April 21 1882	Reist H. C. Watson, Church of England
134	April 22 1882	William Fife William Perrin		Bachelor Bachelor	Coachdriver Farmer	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years Christchurch 1 week in the Rangitata	Registrar's Office	82/1393	[illegible]	April 22 1882	Registration Marriage, M. Parkerson
135	April 22 1882	James Iscalle Agnes Madden		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	25 24	Kai Tapu Christchurch	15 months in the Kai Tapu 6 months Christchurch	Christchurch	82/1359	[illegible]	April 22 1882	Rev. J. T. Teacle, Church of England
136	April 22 1882	James Jamieson Mary Hearn	James Jamieson Maria Sherwood 💍 1883/2200 James Jamieson Jeanie Hay Forester 💍 1882/2073	Bachelor Spinster	Builder [illegible]	30 25	Christchurch Kai Tapu	19 years in the Island 18 years Kai Tapu	Christchurch	82/1204	[illegible]	April 22 1882	Rev. J. Cairus, Presbyterian
137	April 22 1882	Thomas Tricentilly Hay Forrester		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner [illegible]	31 21	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months in St Lukes Church 5 months Sydenham	Christchurch	82/1359	Michael Junes	April 22 1882	Rev. E. A. Lingard, Church of England
138	April 22 1882	David Alexander Ashby Elin Mother Junes		Bachelor Spinster	Miller [illegible]	29 20	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years in St Lukes Church 7 years Christchurch	Christchurch	82/1360	Junes, Father	April 22 1882	Rev. E. A. Lingard, Church of England
139	April 24 1882	Alfred Curnyes Mary Jane Holbeck		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days in the Province 14 years Christchurch	[illegible]	82/1419	[illegible]	April 24 1882	Rev. F. Willian, Church of England
140	April 24 1882	James Haig Elizabeth Ceee Hancock	James Rennie Elizabeth Miller Peacock 💍 1882/1679	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler [illegible]	24 28	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years in the House 16 years Christchurch	Christchurch	82/1379	[illegible]	April 24 1882	Rev. C. Fraser, Presbyterian

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).