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 709

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar M. Walkinson

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
69	01 March 1882	William Hayes Ellen Downey	William Haynes Ellen Downey 💍 1882/889	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 17	Spreydon Spreydon	5 years 17 years	In the House of W. Downey	82/494	Michael Downey, Father	01 March 1882	Rev Ce Peters, Methodist
70	03 March 1882	William McNaulty Maria U Langford	William McNaulty Maria Langford 💍 1882/590	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer Servant	30 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 14 years	In the Registrar's Office	82/579		03 March 1882	Registrar Walkinson
71	04 March 1882	Frank Isaac Wilson Margaret Wilson	Isaac Wilson Margaret Wilson 💍 1882/3605	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 14 years	In the Registrar's Office	82/578		04 March 1882	Walkinson
72	04 March 1882	Agusta Schulz Annie Hill Thompson	August Schulz Annie Thompson 💍 1882/1578	Widower Widow	Mechanic Dressmaker	47 37	Addington Sydenham	2 months 1 year	Christchurch	82/323		04 March 1882	Rev. A. C. In Watson, Church of England
73	06 March 1882	Alfred Gedson Margrette Gribbon	Alfred Gedson Margrette Gibbons 💍 1882/719	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 7 years	Guace Street	82/545		06 March 1882	Rev. E. Fraser, Presbyterian
74	07 March 1882	James Coombs Caroline Jones	James Coombs Caroline Louisa Jones 💍 1882/1577 James Parr Caroline Jones 💍 1882/430	Bachelor Spinster	Leather Merchant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 19 years	In St. Johns Church	82/322		07 March 1882	Rev. H. M. Watson, Church of England
75	07 March 1882	William Sinclair Alice Goscomb	William Sinclair Alice Goscombe 💍 1882/591	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 4 years	In the Registrar's Office	82/520		07 March 1882	Registrar Marriages, Walkinson
76	07 March 1882	Charles Belken Agnes Smart	Charles Beken Agnes Smart 💍 1882/592	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 21 years	In the Registrar's Office	82/521		07 March 1882	Registrar Marriages, Walkinson

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).