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 735

District of Christchurch Quarter ending [illegible]

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
264	12 July 1882	James Oakes Mary Caserlay	James Baker Mary Caserlay 💍 1882/2250	Widower Spinster	Bellminter	33 23	Templeton Templeton	4 years 3 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	82/2235		12 July 1882	Rev. C. Fraser, Presbyterian
265	12 July 1882	James Sowden Emma Simpson	James Lowden Emma Simpson 💍 1882/2238	Bachelor Spinster	Guedwine	28 23	St. Martins Spreydon	2 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church	82/12224		12 July 1882	Rev. I. S. Richworth, Wesleyan
266	12 July 1882	William John O'Donnell Mary Ellen Scannell	William John Bowden Mary Ellen Scannell 💍 1882/3412	Bachelor Spinster	Turner Servant	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	82/13410		12 July 1882	Rev. J. O'Donnell, Roman Catholic
267	12 July 1882	Charles Frederick Gray Berrie Proctor	Charles Frederick Wray Palliser Bessie Proctor 💍 1882/2083	Bachelor Spinster	Audit Inspector	28 24	Christchurch Templeton	6 days 4 years	In St. Lukes Wellington Church	82/12194		12 July 1882	Rev. R. E. Luget, Church of England
268	12 July 1882	Thomas Belsey Mary Parason	Thomas Belsey Mary Le Vavasseur 💍 1882/2704	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer Servant	29 21	Sydenham Sydenham	6 months 1 month	St. Marks Church	82/12548		12 July 1882	Rev. S. J. Chumondeley, Church of England
269	13 July 1882	Thomas Frederick Foulkes Susan Moore	Thomas Frederick Foulkes Susan Moore 💍 1882/2092	Widower Widow	Wellsinker Tailoress	71 64	Waimakiriri Waimakiriri	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	82/12257		13 July 1882	M. Markerson, Registrar of Marriages
270	13 July 1882	John Williams Wilson Margaret Crossman	John William Wilson Elizabeth Johnstone 💍 1882/3062 William Wilson Margaret Kelly 💍 1882/2427	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 20	Waimakiriri Papanui	3 days 2 days	In the Kaiapoi Registrar's Office			27 July [illegible]	Registrar of Marriages
271	14 July 1882	Samuel King Elizabeth Pope	Samuel King Emma Elizabeth Pope 💍 1882/2655	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 16	Sydenham Sydenham	6 months 6 months	In the house of Mr. Pope	82/12498	Henry Pope, father	14 July 1882	Rev. I. Ward, Methodist

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).