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 720

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1882 Registrar M. Maclerson

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
150	1 May 1882	Thomas Powale [illegible]		Bachelor [illegible]	Laborer [illegible]	26 [illegible]	Christchurch [illegible]	6 days [illegible]	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/1380		1 May 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
151	1 May 1882	Martin Cusack Agnes M. Kibbin	Martin Cusack Katie OBrien 💍 1882/1361	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 6 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1302		1 May 1882	Rev. L. Guinty Roman Catholic
152	1 May 1882	Thomas Stafford Katie O'Brien	Thomas Stafford Catharine Thomson 💍 1882/1364	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	45 21	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 7 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1304		1 May 1882	Rev. L. Guinty Roman Catholic
153	2 May 1882	Frederick Denton Catherine Thomson	James Lewin Catherine Thomson 💍 1882/1504	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Housekeeper	22 35	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 15 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1303		2 May 1882	Rev. L. Guinty Roman Catholic
154	2 May 1882	William Winter Annie Read	Frederick Denton Annie Read 💍 1882/1362	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 days	In the House of Mrs Webb	82/1381	Susan Webb, Mother	2 May 1882	Rev. C. Fraser Presbyterian
155	3 May 1882	Tom Purdon Eliza Ann Webb		Bachelor Spinster	Labour	25 17	Sydenham Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In the house of R. Tom Purton	82/2208	John Taylor	3 May 1882	Rev. C. Fraser Presbyterian
156	3 May 1882	Arthur Thomas Burrows Margaret Taylor	Tom Purdonis Margaret Taylor 💍 1882/2074	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	26 19	Bingplant Sydenham	10 years 3 years	In the [illegible] Aouside	82/1848	Father	3 May 1882	Rev. A. Perez Church of England
157	3 May 1882	Richard Golding Susan Woodham	Richard Golding Susannah Woollett 💍 1882/37	Widower Spinster	Bricklayer Servant	41 22	Sydenham Ashbone	6 years 14 years	In the House of Mrs Woollett	82/1383		3 May 1882	Rev. C. Fraser Presbyterian
158	4 May 1882	William James Caldwell Susannah Woollett	Richard Golding Susannah Woollett 💍 1882/37	Bachelor Widow	Draper	27 41	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 months	In St Michaels Church	82/1408		4 May 1882	Rev. W. Harper Church of England
		Christiana Hill		Spinster	Tailoress	22	Christchurch	3 years	Christchurch

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).