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 729

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
227	17 June 1882	John Craw Ellen Higham	John Craw Ellen Higham 💍 1882/43	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 19	Papanui Papanui	17 years 19 years	St. Luke's Church	82/1369	William Higham	17 June 1882	Rev. R. A. Lingard
228	19 June 1882	Thomas Roulston Margaret Carnegie	Thomas Roulston Margaret Carnigie 💍 1882/1763	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Milliner	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 weeks	In the House, Courance of Rev. C. Fraser	82/1145	Mother	19 June 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
229	19 June 1882	Alfred Brake Agnes Tanner	Alfred Brake Agnes Tanner 💍 1882/1250	Bachelor Spinster	Cheese maker	23 19	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	1 month 19 years	In the Wesleyan Church	82/1145	Father	19 June 1882	Rev. J. S. Smalley
230	20 June 1882	Robert Hislop Charlotte Elizabeth	Robert Hislop Charlotte Elizabeth Annie Clarke 💍 1882/42	Bachelor Spinster	Under writer	28 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 months	St. Luke's, Invercargill Church	82/1365		20 June 1882	Rev. R. A. Lingard
231	20 June 1882	John Bourke Amelia	John Bourke Amelia Jane Buller 💍 1882/1249	Bachelor Spinster	Town Clerk	32 25	Gisborne Christchurch	4 years 8 years	In the Wesleyan, Gisborne Church	82/1414		20 June 1882	Rev. I. Buller
232	21 June 1882	Frederick Allen Sarah		Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	21 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 months	In the House, Little River of Rev. C. Fraser	82/1146		21 June 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
233	21 June 1882	George Webb Sarah Parry	George Webb Sarah Parry 💍 1882/1765	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	82/1144		21 June 1882	Rev. C. Fraser
234	22 June 1882	Charles Henry Lydia Clidgey	Charles Henry Cox Lydia Chidgey 💍 1882/1297	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	26 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the House of Mr. Clidgey	82/1338		22 June 1882	Rev. C. Ballaston
235	26 June 1882	Hunter Heurs Margaret McCulloch Hughes	John Hunter Lewis Margaret McCulloch Hughes 💍 1882/1287	Widower Widow	Baker Housekeeper	55 42	Sefton Christchurch	3 years 4 years	St. Saviours, Sefton Church	82/1352		26 June 1882	Rev. H. B. Cocks

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).