Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 674

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 30 June 1883

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
540	11 April 1883	George White Bradley Lydia Maber Bradley	George White Bradley Lydia Maben 💍 1883/2238	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Weaver	25 28	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	19 months 22 years	Primitive Methodists Mission Room Kaiapoi	83/1250		11 April 1883	Rev Josiah Ward Primitive Methodists
541	19 April 1883	Thomas John Stevenson Sarah White Brookey	Thomas John Stevenson Sarah White Bradley 💍 1883/1373	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	21 22	Ohoka Ohoka	8 months 17 years	Wesleyan chapel Ohoka	83/1254		19 April 1883	Rev John Smith Wesleyan
542	24 April 1883	Thomas Henry Burrell Sarah Mary Jane Vette	Thomas Henry Burrell Sarah Mary Jane Vette 💍 1883/1156	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Dressmaker	22 20	Ohoka Ohoka	22 years 18 years	St Albans Church Ohoka	83/1263	Henry Vette Father	24 April 1883	Rev F.R. Inwood Church of England
543	2 May 1883	Martin Grosbey Moran Annie Elizabeth Bean	Martin Crosby Moran Annie Elizabeth Bean 💍 1883/1158	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	38 21	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	16 years 16 months	Roman Catholic Church Kaiapoi	83/1265		2 May 1883	Rev Francis Yardin Roman Catholic
544	4 May 1883	Frank Laming Drabble Elizabeth Alice Drabble	Frank Laming Elizabeth Alice Drabble 💍 1883/1136	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Weaver	23 20	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	14 years 20 years	Presbyterian Church Kaiapoi	83/1259	Joseph Drabble Father	4 May 1883	Rev Robert McGregor Presbyterian
545	6 May 1883	Daniel Kennealy Mary Brady	Daniel Kennealy Mary Brady 💍 1883/1147	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	35 33	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	14 months 3 days	At Residence of J. Charles Hayman + Sewell St Kaiapoi	83/1260		6 May 1883	Rev Robert McGregor Presbyterian
546	12 May 1883	Benjamin Lot Clothier Margaret McRorie	Benjamin Lot Clothier Margaret McRorie 💍 1883/1154	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Weaver	21 19	Clarkville Kaiapoi	21 years 18 months	Presbyterian Church	83/1261	Daniel McRorie Father	14 May 1883	Rev Robert McGregor 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 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).