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 795

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 1882 Registrar J. Ward

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
236	9 February 1882	Egbert John Mayo Eliza Florence Fowler	Egbert John Mayo Eliza Florence Fowler 💍 1882/864	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	23 18	Ashburton Ashburton	6 years 9 years	St Stephen's Church, Ashburton	82/1599	John Fowler, Father	9 February 1882	Revd. A. M. Hands, Church of England.
237	13 February 1882	John Sims Catherine Clifton Moorhouse	John Sims Catherine Clifton Moorhouse 💍 1882/1033	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	27 18	Peafield, Ashburton	3 years 2 years	Private Dwelling House, Revd. W. Keall, Ashburton	82/1605	St. Thomson, Guardian	13 February 1882	Revd. William Keall, Wesleyan.
238	16 February 1882	Thomas Shields Adabelle Fasse	Thomas Shields Adabelle Fosse 💍 1882/1046	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant.	24 19	Tinwald Ashburton	22 years 2 years	Presbyterian Manse, Ashburton.	82/1612	Alfred Fosse, Brother	16 February 1882	Revd. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian.
239	24 February 1882	Donald McKenzie Louisa Watkins	Donald McKenzie Mary Louisa Watkins 💍 1882/1022	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	23 18	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 2 months	Wesleyan Church	82/1604	Edward Watkins, Father	24 February 1882	Revd. William Keall, Wesleyan.
240	28 February 1882	Thomas Daintry Mary Justice	Thomas Daintry Mary Justice 💍 1882/871	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	23 23	Treverton. Ashburton	6 months 10 months	Registrar's Office	82/1603		28 February 1882	Ward, Registrar.
241	2 March 1882	John James Johns Mary Davis	John James Johns Mary Davis 💍 1882/870	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant.	22 18	Newlands Ashburton	5 months 9 months	Registrar's Office	82/1602	Elizabeth Hydes, Mother	2 March 1882	Ward, Registrar.
242	27 March 1882	Richard Milner Buchanan Josephine Georgina Montgomery	Richard Milner Buchanan Josephine Georgina Montgomery 💍 1882/866	Bachelor Spinster	Gold Digger	35 18	Ashburton, Ashburton,	7 years 4 years	Church, Tinwald	82/1598	Isabella Milkie, Mother	27 March 1882	Ward, Revd A. W. Hands, Registrar, Church of England.
243	29 March 1882	Charles Physick Norah Mary Phyfiline Josephine Murphy	Charles Physick Norah Mary Phyfiline Josephine Murphy 💍 1882/1023	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant.	26 22	Ashburton Ashburton	8 years 8 months	Private Dwelling House of Jeffs, Treverton.	82/1613		29 March 1882	Revd. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian.

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).