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 698

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
35	29 January 1883	John Jarrett Sarah Bowmaker	John Jarrett Jenkins Sarah Bowmaker 💍 1883/694	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 6 years	In the Registrars Office	83/449		29 January 1883	M Patterson
36	29 January 1883	Robert Anderson Arella Connon	Robert Anderson Azella Connor 💍 1883/697	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 8 years	In St Matthews Church	83/429	Mother	29 January 1883	Rev R Mortimer, Church of England
37	30 January 1883	Cleaber Joseph Tassant Lizzie Eva Fisher	Cleaber Joseph Farrant Lizzie Eva Fisher 💍 1883/939	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	23 23	Sydenham Sydenham	8 years 8 years	In St Marys Church	83/483		30 January 1883	Rev H East, Church of England
38	30 January 1883	Morgan O'Brien Catherine Colgan	Morgan OBrien Kate Colgan 💍 1883/3253	Bachelor Spinster	Harnesser Servant	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Southland	83/129		30 January 1883	Rev L Guinity, Roman Catholic
39	30 January 1883	Prosper Guilliam Raine Alice Louisa Fisher	Prosper Guillamme Raine Berland Alice Louisa Fisher 💍 1883/468	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Guard Machinist	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	7 months 18 years	In St Dallias Church	83/578		31 January 1883	Rev R C Huggard, Church of England
40	3 February 1883	Malcolm McKinley Sarah Hamilton	Malcolm McKinley Sarah Hamilton 💍 1883/931	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the House of Rev I. Pleuslie	83/500		3 February 1883	Rev I Pleuslie, Presbyterian
41	5 February 1883	Joseph Suckling Lydia Hornsell	Joseph Suckling Lydia Hounsell 💍 1883/696	Bachelor Spinster	Leather Merchant	57 53	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 2 months	In the Registrars Office	83/457		5 February 1883	M Patterson
42	6 February 1883	George McLean Elizabeth Delhay Whelek	George McClean Elizabeth Delhay Whelch 💍 1883/926 George Murphy Elizabeth Ellen Pooley 💍 1884/1965	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Servant	32 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 5 years	In St Michaels Church, Waibard	83/496		6 February 1883	Rev W Harper, Church of England
43	8 February 1883	Matthew John Jewell Mary Caroline Patterson	Matthew John Jewell Mary Carolan 💍 1883/3240	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Servant	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/140		8 February 1883	Rev L Guinity, Roman Catholic

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).