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 794

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar J. Mard

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
227	11 January 1882	Alfred Groves Alice Carpenter	Alfred Groves Alice Carpenter 💍 1882/1043	Widower Spinster	Stonemason Domestic Servant	50 38	Ashburton Ashburton	7 years 1 year	Presbyterian Church.	82/609		11 January 1882	Revd. A. M. Beattie.
228	11 January 1882	Patrick Daly Mary Conner	Patrick Daly Mary OConnor 💍 1882/1042	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant.	30 21	South Rakaia South Rakaia	4 years 1 month	Roman Catholic Church,	82/608		11 January 1882	Revd. Edmund Coffey.
229	11 January 1882	Daniel Brick Margaret Wanniky	Daniel Brick Margaret Dannihy 💍 1882/1041	Widower Widow	Farmer.	29 28	Seafield Seafield	5 years, 5 years.	Roman Catholic Church	82/607		11 January 1882	Revd. Edmund P. Coffey.
230	16 January 1882	John Brich Mary Daly	John Brick Mary Daly 💍 1882/1040	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer, Domestic Servant	31 24	Seafield, South Rakaia	1 years 7 weeks.	Roman Catholic Chapel,	82/606		16 January 1882	Rwd. Edmund P. Coffey
231	24 January 1882	James Smith Jane Harold	James Smith Jane Harold 💍 1882/1044	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant.	24 22	Ashburton Ashburton	6 years 2 years.	Private Dwelling house of Christopher Richard Harold, Ashburton.	82/610		24 January 1882	Revd. A. M. Beattie,
232	30 January 1882	Frederick William Painter Seabel Walker	Frederick William Painter Isabel Walker 💍 1882/867	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	22 21	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days.	Registrar's Office	82/599		30 January 1882	J. Mard, Registrar
233	01 February 1882	Emmanuel Verdey Jessie Postewart	Emmanuel Kerdy Jessie Stewart 💍 1882/1045	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer, Domestic Servant.	26 20	Tinwald. Tinwald	3 years 3 years.	Presbyterian Manse	82/611		01 February 1882	Revd. A. M. Beattie,
234	01 February 1882	James Fowler Susy Haines	James Fowler Lucy Haines 💍 1882/868	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 14	Methven Gelford Forest	5 years 12 years	Registrar's Office	82/600	Michael Haines Adopted Father	01 February 1882	J. Mard Registrar
235	05 February 1882	Hector Dempsey Elizabeth Emma Burness	Hector Dempsey Elizabeth Emma Burne 💍 1882/863	Bachelor Spinster	Pickermaster	27 28	Ashburton Ashburton	3 weeks 3 days	St. Stephen's Church	82/596		05 February 1882	Rwd. A. M. Stands.

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).