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 800

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 December 1882 Registrar Ward

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
266	6 October 1882	Peter McNeil Elizabeth Mary McFarlane	Peter McNeil Elizabeth Mary Macfarlane 💍 1882/3111	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 20	Alford Forest Alford Forest	8 years 20 years	Presbyterian Manse	82/13134	Andrew McFarlane, Father	11 October 1882	Revd A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian.
267	12 October 1882	William Fisher Kate Winnifred Nolan	William Fisher Kate Winifred Nolan 💍 1882/3181	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	34 22	Ashburton Dunedin	3 years 3 Weeks	Registrar's office	82/32284		12 October 1882	The Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin.
268	14 October 1882	Frederick Cox Fanny Bartlett	Frederick Cox Fanny Bartlett 💍 1882/3112	Bachelor Spinster	Cordial Maker	24 18	Ashburton Ashburton	3 years 7 years	Presbyterian Manse	82/13135	William Bartlett, Father	18 October 1882	Revd. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian.
269	17 November 1882	Alfred William Hodder Hannah Maria Groves	Alfred William Hodder Hannah Maria Groves 💍 1882/3552	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	31 20	Ashburton Ashburton	7 years 8 years	St. Stephen's Church	82/13583	Alfred Groves, Father	17 November 1882	Revd. E. A. Scott, Ashburton.
270	2 December 1882	Hugh Cullen Catherine Cullen	Hugh Cullen Catherine Cullen 💍 1882/3109	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Longbeach Ashburton	5 years 8 months	Holy name of Jesus	82/13132		2 December 1882	Revd. Edmund Coffey, Ashburton.
271	12 December 1882	James Steyland Margaret Hartyin	James Hyland Margaret Hartigan 💍 1882/3110 James Stark Margaret Smith 💍 1883/439	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	30 30	Wakanui Ashburton	6 years 2 years	Catholic Church	82/13133		12 December 1882	Revd. Edmund Coffey, Ashburton.
272	13 December 1882	Frederick Richard Quinton Maud Mary Pitt	Frederick Richard Quinton Maud Mary Pitt 💍 1882/3129	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer Cook	24 21	Ashburton Christchurch	6 years 3 years	St. Luke's Church	82/3569		13 December 1882	Revd. E. A. Lingard, Christchurch.
273	14 December 1882	John Millichamp Eliza Emma Thorpe	John Millichamp Eliza Emma Thorp 💍 1882/3553	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	40 26	Treverton, Ashburton Treverton, Ashburton	4 months 4 months	St. Stephen's Church	S/3581A		14 December 1882	Revd. E. A. Scott, Ashburton.

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).