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 738

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1882 Registrar M. MacPherson

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
288	31 July 1882	John Hunter Elizabeth Williamson	John Hunter Elizabeth Williamson 💍 1882/2095	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker Housekeeping	40 40	Sydenham Sydenham	4 years 4 months	In the Registrars office	82/12455		31 July 1882	M. MacPherson
289	01 August 1882	Winslow Scanlen Ruth Griffiths	Winston Scanlen Ruth Griffiths 💍 1882/3530	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	35 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 22 years	In St. Johns Church	82/3062		01 August 1882	Rev H.C.M. Watson
290	01 August 1882	Frank Drayton Emily Sharp	Frank Hayton Bamfield Emily Sharp 💍 1882/2154	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 6 years	In St. Michaels Church	82/2470	Matthias Sharp, father	01 August 1882	Rev W. Harper
291	01 August 1882	Jaber Eggleston Sabina Stokes	Jabez Eggleston Sabena Stokes 💍 1882/2252	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 22 years	In the House of Mr. Julles	82/12214		01 August 1882	Rev C. Dallaston
292	02 August 1882	John Dalton Anne Stewart	John Dalton Margaret Anne Stewart 💍 1882/2097	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 4 years	In the Registrars Office	82/12286		02 August 1882	M. MacPherson
293	02 August 1882	John Henry Brooks Emily Jordan	John Henry Brooks Emily Jordan 💍 1882/2085	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 days	In the Royal Hotel	82/12234		02 August 1882	Rev C. Fraser
294	03 August 1882	Frances Emily Thompson		Spinster		18	Prebbleton	18 years	In the Registrars Office	82/12257	Charles Thompson, father	03 August 1882	Registrar M. MacPherson
295	03 August 1882	William Simpson Frederick Duncan	William Simpson Frances Emily Thompson 💍 1882/2098	Bachelor Bachelor	Labourer Teacher	28 25	Prebbleton Merivale	5 years 2 years	In the Merivale	82/12211	Father	03 August 1882	Rev J. Flavell
296	05 August 1882	Abraham Dawson Louise Muir		Widower Spinster		68 20	Spreydon Merivale	16 years 1 month	In the Smith Church	82/12205		05 August 1882	Rev C. Peters
	05 August 1882	Middleborough		Widow	Housekeeper	58	Sydenham	1 year	In Sydenham			05 August 1882	Methodist

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).