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 708

District of Christchurch 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
139	14 April 1883	Jonathan Booker Mary Aldridge	Jonathan Booker Mary Louisa Oldridge 💍 1883/1170	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 20	Riccarton Christchurch	16 years 2 years	In the Wesleyan Church	83/1326	Coldridge Father	14 April 1883	Rev R. Taylor Methodist
140	16 April 1883	Wallace Howard Halstead Rose Ann Maguire	Wallace Howard Halstead Rose Anne Maguire 💍 1883/1150	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Machinist	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 5 years	In the Registrars Office	83/1280	Maguire Mother	16 April 1883	Registrar Markerson
141	16 April 1883	Belle Reveley Jessie Coutts	Bell Reveley Jessie Coutts 💍 1883/1201	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Avonside Church	83/1306		16 April 1883	Rev J. E. Gilbert Church of England
142	16 April 1883	William James Mitchell Marianne Sims	William Samuel Mitchell Ismene Marianne Simms 💍 1883/1213	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Manager	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 21 years	In the St Lukes Church	83/1344		16 April 1883	Rev T. A. Lingard Church of England
143	16 April 1883	Harry Creemup Maria Harrison	Harry Crump Maria Harrison 💍 1883/1167	Bachelor Spinster	Pattern Maker	26 22	St Albans St Albans	3 years 2 years	In the House of Mr Harrison	83/1323		16 April 1883	Rev W. Morley Wesleyan
144	16 April 1883	Cornelius David Mahony Sarah Ann Reeves	Cornelius David Mahoney Sarah Anne Reeves 💍 1883/3244	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 33	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 9 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/1435		16 April 1883	Rev L. h. Enright Roman Catholic
145	16 April 1883	Frederick Sandberg Christiana Clark	Frederick Sandburge Christiana Clark 💍 1883/1498	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Machinist	29 24	Sydenham Sydenham	8 years 2 years	Colombo Road	83/1383		16 April 1883	Rev I. Crease Wesleyan
146	20 April 1883	Pressey Edward Granger Leonora Hill	Pressey Edward Granger Leonore Hill 💍 1883/1214	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 9 years	In St Lukes Church	83/1345		20 April 1883	Rev T. A. Lingard Church of England
147	20 April 1883	Arthur William Allen Jane Burns	Arthur William Allen Lavinia Jane Burns 💍 1883/1151	Bachelor Spinster	Polisher	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 5 years	In the Registrars Office	83/1281		20 April 1883	Registrar Markerson

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).