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 743

District of [illegible] Quarter ending [illegible] Registrar [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
330	31 August 1882	Alfred Clisnale Mary		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 26	Christchurch Goldhurst	25 years 15 years	Riccarton	82/3614		31 August 1882	Rev. C. Bowen
331	01 September 1882	James Henry Mattha Greenwood	James Henry Hellewell Martha Greenwood 💍 1882/2072	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Dressmaker	35 25	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 5 years	Baptist Chapel	82/2206		01 September 1882	Rev. W. C. Spencer
332	04 September 1882	Sonne Larson Anna Joensen	Sonne Larson Anna Sorensen 💍 1882/2690	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	40 28	Leppawa Leppawa	6 years 7 months	House of Sonne Larson	82/2558		04 September 1882	Rev. G. Jacobsen
333	09 September 1882	William John Ellen Mullis	William John Duke Ellen Miller 💍 1882/2257 William Judd Ellen Ralph 💍 1882/1162 William Watt Junr Ellen Morris 💍 1882/1748 William Davy Ellen McGurk 💍 1882/1761 William Kemp Ellen Gallagher 💍 1883/523	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 22	Prebbleton Prebbleton	4 years 7 years	Prebbleton Church	82/2219		09 September 1882	Rev. A. E. Wright
334	11 September 1882	Edward O'Neil Mary Anne Fleet	Edward O'Neil Marie Anne Fleet 💍 1882/1958	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	22 23	Christchurch Halswell	10 years 22 years	Registrar's Office	82/2202		11 September 1882	M. Mackesson
335	11 September 1882	Jesse Hall Constance Annie Vernall	Jefre Hale Constance Annie Vernall 💍 1882/2258	Bachelor Spinster	Photo. Servant	27 16	Christchurch St. Albans	20 years 1 year	Wesleyan Church	82/2220	Vernall, father	11 September 1882	Rev. J. Aldred
336	11 September 1882	Alban Douglas Agnes Spensley	Alban Douglas Wells Agnes Spensley 💍 1882/2683	Bachelor Spinster	[illegible]	25 23	Christchurch Woolston	3 years 20 years	Leppawa Church	82/2557		11 September 1882	Rev. G. J. Cholmondeley
337	11 September 1882	George Watson Catherine Hill	George Watson Charlotte Catherine Hill 💍 1882/3596	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	West Melton West Melton	10 years 3 years	Riccarton Church	82/3616		11 September 1882	Rev. 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).