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 712

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
175	7 May 1883	Alexander Ringwood Mary Rigby	Alexander Ringwood Mary Rigby 💍 1883/3393	Bachelor Spinster	Astrological Observer	36 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 5 days	In the Reccarton Church	83/1628		7 May 1883	Rev C Bowen, Church of England
176	7 May 1883	Robert Fisher Jones Martha Goodwin	Robert Fisher Tomes Martha Goodwin 💍 1883/1219	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Papanui Papanui	12 years 22 years	In the Harewood Road Church	83/1330		7 May 1883	Rev P C Anderson, Church of England
177	7 May 1883	Arthur Oswald Brunsden Marie Kissel	Arthur Oswald Brunsden Marie Kissel 💍 1883/1205	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 22 years	In the Registrars Office	83/1284		7 May 1883	Registrar of Marriages, M Patterson
178	7 May 1883	Benjamin Harper Frances Elizabeth Peters	Benjamin Harper Frances Elizabeth Peters 💍 1883/2172	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 18 years	In the House of Mr Harper	83/1241		7 May 1883	Rev W Scrimshaw, Presbyterian
179	8 May 1883	John Benjamin Butler Anne Brown	John Benjamin Butler Elizabeth Annie Brown 💍 1883/1171	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Servant	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	13 years 15 years	In the Methodist Chapel	83/1327	Charles Brown, Father	8 May 1883	Rev R Taylor, Methodist
180	8 May 1883	George Hempton Sarah Jane Jamieson	George Hempton Sarah Jane Jamieson 💍 1883/1176	Bachelor Spinster	Cabman Servant	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In St Michaels Church	83/1331		8 May 1883	Rev W Harper, Church of England
181	8 May 1883	John Thomas Lewis Martha McConnell	John Thomas Lewis Martha McConnell 💍 1883/2179	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 28	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 15 years	In the Presbyterian Church North Belt	83/2242		8 May 1883	Rev W Scrimshaw, Presbyterian
182	9 May 1883	Henry Chislett Alice Felton	Henry Chislett Agnes Alice Felton 💍 1883/1236	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 9 years	In the House of Mr Felton	83/1359	Joseph Felton, Father	9 May 1883	Rev R Dallaston, Baptist
183	10 May 1883	James Crawford Elizabeth Cook	James Crawford Elizabeth Cook 💍 1883/1492	Widower Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	57 51	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 20 years	In St Pauls Church Cashel Street	83/1378		10 May 1883	Rev J Elmslie, 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).