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 702

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

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
21	21 January 1882	Patrick Dunphy Fillia	Patrick Dunphy Lilly Delia Wattie 💍 1882/724	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/557	James Wattie, Father	20 January 1882	Rev. L. Ginaty
22	22 January 1882	Henry Newton Emily	Henry Newton Emily Ann Carlysle 💍 1882/641	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 20	Phillipstown Sydenham	2 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. I. Rishworth	82/545		20 January 1882	Rev. I. Rishworth
23	23 January 1882	John Harris Mary Clun Wilue	John Harris Mary Ann Milne 💍 1882/635	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	33 30	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 15 years	In the House of Mr. Harris	82/539		21 January 1882	Rev. T. Flavell
24	24 January 1882	William Bitfort Fanny Leuney	William Ditfort Fanny Lenney 💍 1882/709	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 20	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 18 months	In St. Saviours, Sydenham	82/566	James Leuney, Father	23 January 1882	Rev. H.S. Cocks
25	25 January 1882	James McDonald Mary	James McDonald Mary Ann Wheeler 💍 1882/710	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	29 22	Sydenham Christchurch	1 year 20 years	In St. Saviours Church	82/567		25 January 1882	Rev. H.S. Cocks
26	26 January 1882	Samuel Brookling Annie	Samuel Brooking Annie Eliza Goodwin 💍 1882/656	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	24 22	Christchurch Sydenham	3 years 20 years	In St. Marys, Addington	82/536	Samuel Goodwin, Father	26 January 1882	Rev. H. East
27	27 January 1882	Henry Rodda Lina Goodwin	Henry Rodda Lydia Farland 💍 1882/706	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Servant	27 19	Sydenham Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the House of Mr. Rodda	82/563		27 January 1882	Rev. I.S. Smalley
28	28 January 1882	Christopher Bassett Lydia Farlane		Bachelor Spinster	Guard Dressmaker	23 22	Christchurch Sydenham	1 year 3 years	In the Registrars Office	82/572		28 January 1882	J.J. Mackerson
28	28 January 1882	Edward Christopher Bassett Martha Judge	Edward Christopher Bassett Martha Judge 💍 1882/607	Bachelor Spinster	Guard	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 21 years	In the Registrars Office Christchurch	82/512		28 January 1882	Registrar Marriages Paul Reason

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).