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 700

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar J.J. Muleson

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
5	5 January 1882	Patrick Joseph Backofen Geoghegan		Bachelor	Sawyer	35	Christchurch	4 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/581		6 January 1882	Rev. L. Guinity
6	6 January 1882	George Reast Ellen Murphy	George Ward Ellen Scully 💍 1883/835	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	44 21	Springston Christchurch	12 years 4 days	Christchurch	82/1562		7 January 1882	Rev. I. Smalley
7	7 January 1882	Martin Bergman Sarah Jane Martin		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	35 25	Heathcote Springston	3 months 1 year	Springston	82/1529		7 January 1882	Rev. C.I. Murton
7	7 January 1882	Samuel [illegible] Caroline Wright		Bachelor Widow	Coachman Dressmaker	24 39	Christchurch Heathcote	4 years 5 years	Church	82/608		8 January 1882	[illegible] Registrar
8	9 January 1882	William Watson Margaret C. Shea	Thomas Watson Margaret Matthews 💍 1882/128	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Servant	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 5 years	In the Registrars Office	82/1537		9 January 1882	J.J. Muleson
9	9 January 1882	Thomas Smith Elizabeth Manson	Thomas Smith Margaret Deasy 💍 1882/3218 William Smith Elizabeth Donovan 💍 1882/1024 John Robert Smith Elizabeth Cookson 💍 1882/1713	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	30 20	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 5 days	In the House	82/1552	David Manson & Rev C. Fraser	9 January 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
10	10 January 1882	Michael Marshole Jane Osborn		Widower Spinster	Grocer	42 21	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 21 years	Dean Street	82/1489		10 January 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
11	10 January 1882	Wyatt [illegible] Jane Foster		Spinster	Teacher	28	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 13 years	In H. Lulles			10 January 1882	Rev. E.A. Lingard
12	12 January 1882	William Wood Annie Bassett	William Wood Annie Bassett 💍 1882/604	Bachelor Widow	Butcher Housekeeper	35 36	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 14 days	Church	82/1509		11 January 1882	J.J. Muleson

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).