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 722

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

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
168	6 May 1882	James Boxer Ada Kelly	James Boxer Mayne Ada Kelly 💍 1882/21	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	25 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 4 years	In F. Mathews, Fernside Church	82/1368	Kelly, mother	6 May 1882	The Very Rev. The Dean Church of England
169	8 May 1882	Peal Genn Christina Williamson	Peal Genn Christina Williamson 💍 1882/1409	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Servant	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 2 years	In the Registrars Office	82/1400		8 May 1882	Registrar Marriages M. Walkerson
170	8 May 1882	George Joseph Russell Jelina Bowden	George Joseph Russell Selina Bowden 💍 1882/1580	Bachelor Spinster	Pargineer	26 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 17 years	In St. Johns Church	82/1325	William Bowden, father	8 May 1882	Rev H.C.M. Watson Church of England
171	8 May 1882	George Judd Henrietta Judd	George Judd Henrietta Judd 💍 1882/23	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 4 years	In the Wesleyan Church	82/1340		8 May 1882	Rev. R. Best Wesleyan
172	9 May 1882	John Thatcher Mary Anglesey	John Thatcher Mary Anglesey 💍 1882/1284	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 week	In the Geraldine Alongside	82/1349		9 May 1882	Rev. W.A. Pascoe Church of England
173	11 May 1882	Andrew Walker Isabel Kincaid	Andrew Walker Isabel Kincaid 💍 1882/1289	Bachelor Spinster	Composite	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	7 days 7 days	In the Baptist Chapel	82/1336	Agnes Kincaid, mother	11 May 1882	Rev. C. Ballastone Baptist
174	12 May 1882	Edgar James Oliver Louisa Penfold	Edgar James Oliver Louisa Penfold 💍 1882/1410	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 4 years	In the Registrars Office	82/1401		12 May 1882	Registrar Marriages M. Walkerson
175	12 May 1882	Aladine George Clever Jane Booth	Aladine George Oliver Elizabeth Jane Booth 💍 1882/1411	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 27 years	Registrars Office	82/1402		12 May 1882	Registrar Marriages M. Walkerson

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).