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 723

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1882 Registrar J.Matterson

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
176	13 May 1882	Mary Beecham John Aldred	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 20 years	Wesleyan Church	82/11339	John Reese	13 May 1882	Rev. I. Aldred
177	15 May 1882	Martha Jane Reese John Julius Parker	Bachelor Spinster	Land Agent	33 34	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 1 month	Church	82/11336	Hattier	15 May 1882	Rev. H.C.M. Watson
178	15 May 1882	Mary Welland Edward Taylor	Widower Widow	Gardener Housekeeper	67 54	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 19 years	Registrar Office	82/11403		15 May 1882	J.Matterson
179	16 May 1882	Elizabeth Parker Jens Andersen	Widower Widow	Carpenter Servant	39 26	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 3 years	In the House of Mr. Underside	82/11385	Shoy & Elizabeth	16 May 1882	Rev. P. Jacobsen
180	16 May 1882	Aum Pizzard James Callender	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant -	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 4 years	Church	82/11355	I Mabel	16 May 1882	Rev. H. Williams
181	17 May 1882	Fanny Wroughton Edward Cowenden	Bachelor Spinster	Methodist Minister	34 33	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 5 years	In the House, Napier, of Rev. I.H. Fisher	82/11341	Perry & Catherine	17 May 1882	Rev. S. Macfarlane
182	17 May 1882	Aum Fisher John Corboy	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	38 28	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	82/11386		17 May 1882	Rev. L. Guinty
183	17 May 1882	Ellen Kavanagh William Orange	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer -	31 48	St. Albans St. Albans	9 years 7 years	Church	82/11443	W. Faddin & Mary	17 May 1882	Rev. F. Flavell

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).