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 707

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1882

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
53	February 17 1882	Philip McDewitt Margaret M. Namana	Philip McDevitt Margaret McNamara 💍 1882/727	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1560		February 17 1882	Rev. L. Ginnaty
54	February 20 1882	James M. Gaughern Jane Ryans	James McGaughern Jane Ryan 💍 1882/726	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1559		February 20 1882	Rev. L. Ginnaty
55	February 21 1882	James Scarlet Annie Wadsworth	James Scarlet Annie Wadsworth 💍 1882/714	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 17	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 13 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser, Guace Street	82/544	Father	February 21 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
56	February 22 1882	William Edward Burley & Sarah		Bachelor	Carpenter	24	Springston	2 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser, Guace Street	82/543		February 22 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
57	February 22 1882	John Thomas Jane Dyues	John Symes Jane Higgs 💍 1882/2183	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	25 21	Christchurch Springston	18 years 5 years	In the Baptist Chapel	82/1500		February 22 1882	Rev. C. Ballastone
58	February 23 1882	Houghton & Elizabeth Ann Sutton		Spinster		17	Christchurch	9 years	Oxford Terrace	82/574	Father	February 23 1882	Registrar Marriages
59	February 24 1882	Elizabeth Croner Hogget & Edmund		Spinster		23	Christchurch	4 months	In the Registrars Office			February 24 1882	Registrar Marriages
59	February 24 1882	Ambrose O'Brien Alfred Allen		Bachelor Bachelor	Bootmaker Carpenter	27 36	Christchurch Sydenham	2 years 7 years	In the Registry Office	82/575		February 24 1882	Registrar Marriages
60	February 25 1882	George Henry Uuina Rucuson		Bachelor Spinster	Draper Servant	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Congregational Church, Springfield	82/533	Father	February 25 1882	Rev. H. Williams
60	February 25 1882	Mogridge & Elizabeth Jane Woodham		Spinster	Milliner	21	Christchurch	21 years	Christchurch			February 25 1882	Rev. H. Williams

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).