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 740

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

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
306	14 August 1882	Thomas Candy Honor Edwards	Thomas Candy Honor Edwards 💍 1882/2070 Thomas Dodds Jane Edwards 💍 1882/742	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the House of Thomas Candy	82/2205		14 August 1882	Rev. W. C. Spencer, Baptist
307	14 August 1882	Alexander Mitchell Mary Ann Rance	Alexander Mitchell Mary Ann Rance 💍 1882/2104	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer & Printer Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 9 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/2240		14 August 1882	Rev. C. Fraser, Presbyterian
308	14 August 1882	Harry Bliss Elizabeth Gilbert	Harry Bliss Elizabeth Gilbert 💍 1882/2633	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman Dressmaker	24 22	Heathcote Heathcote	2 years 22 years	In St. John's Church	82/2501		14 August 1882	Rev. H. C. M. Watson, Church of England
309	15 August 1882	William Rowe Margaret Pollock	William Rowe Margaret Polcock 💍 1882/2066	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 9 years	In St. Matthew's Church	82/2207		15 August 1882	Rev. R. M. Mortimer, Church of England
310	15 August 1882	Job Batchelor Mary O'Callaghan	Job Batchelor Mary O'Callaghan 💍 1882/2100	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the Registrar's Office	82/2259		15 August 1882	M. M. Paulkerson
311	15 August 1882	Zacharias James Davies & Mary		Bachelor [illegible]	Farmer [illegible]	30 [illegible]	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 days	In St. Luke's, Ashburton Church	82/2164		15 August 1882	Rev. Q. A. Lingard, Church of England
312	15 August 1882	Albert Cutler Jane Stephens	Albert Cutler Annie Florence Howard 💍 1882/2239	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist [illegible]	23 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 5 years	In the Wesleyan Church	82/2220		15 August 1882	Rev. I. Rishworth, Wesleyan
313	21 August 1882	Edward Wearne Florence Howard		Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Dressmaker	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Oxford	82/2242	Samuel Prisk, Father	21 August 1882	Rev. Q. Best, Wesleyan
	21 August 1882	Gundry & Sophia Prisk				18	Oxford	18 years	Burham Street

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).