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 757

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1882 Registrar M Parkerson

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
434	12 December 1882	William Williams Ellen Bygrave	William Williams Ellen Byrne 💍 1882/2902	Bachelor Widow	Brickmaker Housekeeper	36 37	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	82/798		12 December 1882	Registrar Marriages
435	12 December 1882	Alfred Henry Isabella Langhorn	Alfred Henry Wyatt Isabella Langhorn 💍 1882/3421	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 20	Christchurch St. Albans	21 years 17 years	St. Albans Church	82/397	Mother	12 December 1882	Rev R. Mortimer
436	13 December 1882	John Hurst Elina Miles	John Hurst Eliza Miles 💍 1882/2728	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 26	Springston Springston	12 years 12 years	Springston Church	82/3027		13 December 1882	Rev T. Teakle
437	14 December 1882	Edwin Arnold Hannah Taylor	Edwin Arnold Bonniface Hannah Taylor 💍 1882/87	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 20 years	St. Luke's Church	82/3066		14 December 1882	Rev. L. A. Lingard
438	14 December 1882	William Henry Lucy Gay	William Henry Manhire Lucy S Gay 💍 1882/2721	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Dressmaker	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 9 years	In the House of John Gay	82/3043		14 December 1882	Rev R. Taylor
439	15 December 1882	Arthur Deuson Adelaide Wye	Arthur Denson Adelaide Wye 💍 1882/2903	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 3 days	In the Registrar's Office	82/3099		15 December 1882	Registrar Marriages
440	15 December 1882	Edmund Russell Matilda Broughton	Edmund Russel Jones Kitty Matilda Broughton 💍 1882/3134	Bachelor Spinster	Clicker	23 22	Merivale Merivale	6 years 6 years	In the House of Mr. Broughton	82/3082		15 December 1882	Rev Z. Best
441	15 December 1882	Lewis Slade Harriett Walles	Lewis Slade Harriet Wallis 💍 1882/2708	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Housemaid	26 24	Christchurch Sydenham	15 years 8 years	In F. J. Savours, Sydenham	82/3030		15 December 1882	Rev to is Cocks
442	18 December 1882	Samuel Roulston Lucinda Begg	Samuel Roulston Lucinda Begg 💍 1882/3527	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In the Presbyterian Church	82/3559	Begg, Father	18 December 1882	Rev J. R. Cairies

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).