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 711

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar Mulleson

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
85	15 March 1882	Jaber William Rowntree Hannah Buggleby	Jabez William Rowntree Hannah Duggleby 💍 1882/642	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Machinist	30 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 1 year	In the House of Mr. C. Froggart	82/646		15 March 1882	Rev. I. Rishworth
86	15 March 1882	George Graham Hannah Round	George Graham Frame Hannah Round 💍 1882/721	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 21	Papanui Christchurch	4 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/577		15 March 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
87	17 March 1882	August Kennedy Ann M. Donald	Angus Kennedy Mary Ann McDonald 💍 1882/722	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 14 days	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/578		17 March 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
88	17 March 1882	Arthur Miller Lydia Mills	Arthur Miller Diggle Lydia Mills 💍 1882/1288	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 22 years	In the Congregational Church	82/1053		17 March 1882	Rev. H. Williams
89	18 March 1882	Frederick Mounce Elizabeth Naylor Reine	Frederic Mounce Elizabeth Naylor Kime 💍 1882/707	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Springston Springston	7 years 15 years	In the House of Mrs. Reine	82/564		18 March 1882	Rev. I. S. Smalley
90	18 March 1882	Robert Walker Annie Painter	Robert Walker Annie Painter 💍 1882/854 James Thomas Tattershall Annie Painter 💍 1882/2999	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	West Melton West Melton	8 years 19 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/519	Joseph Painter, Father	18 March 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
91	20 March 1882	James Knight Vail Constance		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 6 weeks	In the Registrars Office	82/525		20 March 1882	Register Marriages
92	20 March 1882	Bartram Arthur Charles Emily Treganowan	Arthur Charles Bartram Emily Treganowan 💍 1882/655	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 7 years	In the House of Mr. Bartram Treganowan	82/530	Father	20 March 1882	Rev. C. Fraser

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).