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 739

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1882 Registrar Malferson

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
297	7 August 1882	Gregor Grant Jeannette Lawrie	Gregor Grant Jeannette Owen 💍 1882/2253	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	30 30	Christchurch Christchurch	19 months 2 years	In the House of Jeannette Lawrie	82/12245	Victoria Harell	7 August 1882	Rev C. Ballaston
298	7 August 1882	Artileton Packer Agnes Milner	Lyttleton Packer Agness Milner 💍 1882/2242	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	26 23	Christchurch Riccarton	3 months 15 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	82/12228		7 August 1882	Rev C. Fenny
299	7 August 1882	Valentin Esselborn Mary Bain	Valentine Esselborn Mary Bain 💍 1882/2099	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	29 22	St. Albans St. Albans	2 years 3 weeks	In the Registrar's Office	82/12258		7 August 1882	Registrar Mactherson
300	7 August 1882	James Affleck Annie McLaughlan	James Affleck Annie McLaughlin 💍 1882/2096	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 5 days	In St. Andrews Church	82/12238		7 August 1882	Rev C. Fraser
301	8 August 1882	John Hunt Rachel Elizabeth Dawson	John Hunt Rachel Elizabeth Dawson 💍 1882/2244	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 20 years	In the Ashburton Thomas House, Templeton	82/12230	Dawson Father	8 August 1882	Rev a & Wright
302	9 August 1882	Edward Barrett Ellen Legge	Edward Barrett Ellen Alice Legge 💍 1882/2103	Bachelor Spinster	Currier Dressmaker	29 23	Woolston Woolston	7 years 8 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	82/12239		9 August 1882	Rev C. Fraser
303	9 August 1882	John Hale Papps Maria Weston	Tom Hale Papps Maria Weston 💍 1882/2152	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In St. Michaels	82/12268		9 August 1882	Rev W. Harper
304	10 August 1882	Edward Mason Cole Susan Mary Hickman	Edward Mason Cole Susan Mary Hickman 💍 1882/2061	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	29 25	Christchurch Styx	4 years 1 year	Christchurch	82/12196		10 August 1882	Rev E. G. Hurgan
305	11 August 1882	Henry Collins Philis Goole	Henry Collins Phyllis Gorte 💍 1882/3595	Bachelor Spinster	Ord in Holy Orders	32 17	Courtenay Yaldhurst	2 years 2 years	In the Receiving	82/13615	John Tayler Goole Father	11 August 1882	R C Bowen

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).