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 717

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Registrar M. Walkerson

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
124	18 April 1882	William Harvey Bell Jane Halker	William Harvey Bell Jane Stalker 💍 1882/1423	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	23 32	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registrar's Office	82/1390		18 April 1882	M. Walkerson
125	18 April 1882	James Alexander Mitchell Margaret Sprinter McDonnell	James Alexander Mitchell Margaret Magdalene McDonnell 💍 1882/1356	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman Dressmaker	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 7 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1297		18 April 1882	Rev. R. Guinty. Roman Catholic
126	18 April 1882	James Ballingale Letitia Matthews		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	32 23	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 1 month	In the Registrar's Office			18 April 1882	M. Walkerson
127	19 April 1882	Osmyn Kirby Elizabeth McKinley	Osmyn Kirby Elizabeth McKinlay 💍 1882/1405	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Machinist	29 18	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 7 years	In the Registrar's Office	82/1394	Mary McKinley, Mother	19 April 1882	M. Walkerson
128	19 April 1882	Edmund Ellis Margaret Edwards	Edmund Ellis Wright Annie Margaret Edwards 💍 1882/1299	Bachelor Spinster	Clicker	25 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 7 years	In the House of the Missionary	82/1340	No person having authority	4 May 1882	Rev. J. Crewes. Bible Christian
129	20 April 1882	George Minter Sarah McClelland	George Winter Sarah M'Clelland 💍 1882/28	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/1345		20 April 1882	Rev. C. Fraser. Presbyterian
130	20 April 1882	John Phair Ellen Humphries	John Phair Ellen Hampton 💍 1882/1425	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	14 19	West Melton West Melton	In the same 6 years	Registrar's Office	82/1392	Robert Humphries, Father	20 April 1882	M. Walkerson
131	20 April 1882	John Rush Annie Ashmore	John Rush Annie Ashmore 💍 1882/1357	Bachelor Spinster	Leather Cutter	32 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/1298		20 April 1882	Rev. R. Guinty. Roman Catholic

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).