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 720

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
247	23 June 1883	James Leighton Eliza Loukin	James Knighton Eliza Tonkin 💍 1883/1200	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker	29 30	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 4 years	In the Registrar's Office	83/1305		23 June 1883	M. Parkerson
248	23 June 1883	Henry Simpson Sarah Elizabeth New	Henry Simpson Sarah Elizabeth New 💍 1883/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 16	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 1 week	In the Opawa Church	83/1317	Mother	23 June 1883	Rev. J. G. Cholmondeley, Church of England
249	25 June 1883	John C. Carroll Norah Mary Dowd	John O'Carroll Norah Mary Dowd 💍 1883/3147	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Waikari	83/1352		25 June 1883	Rev. J. Guiarty, Roman Catholic
250	25 June 1883	Noah Miles Philpott Jane Hill	Noah Miles Philpott Jane Hill 💍 1883/2169 John Lewis Carrell Jane Hill 💍 1884/811	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 27	St. Albans St. Albans	30 years 27 years	In the House of Mrs. Hill	83/2256		25 June 1883	Rev. J. Aldred, Wesleyan
251	25 June 1883	John William Bates Ann Rossiter	John William Bates Mary Ann Rossiter 💍 1883/1182	Bachelor Spinster	Glass Merchant	23 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 years	In the House of John Wm. Bates, Gloucester Street	83/1314		25 June 1883	Rev. W. Tisley, Wesleyan
252	26 June 1883	Frederick Francis Foster Elizabeth Lawrence	Frederic Francis Foster Anne Elizabeth Lawrence 💍 1883/1503	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 20 years	In St. Saviour's Church	83/1365		26 June 1883	Rev. H. S. Cocks, Church of England
253	26 June 1883	Charles Curtis Jessie Langford	Charles Curtis Jessie Langford 💍 1883/2074	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 15 years	In the Sydenham Church	83/2191		26 June 1883	Rev. J. Flavell, Church of England
254	27 June 1883	Henry Stedman Mary Cense	Henry Stedman Mary Ann Mapplebeck 💍 1883/1162	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	33 28	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 3 years	In the Opawa Church	83/1318		27 June 1883	Rev. G. Cholmondeley, Church of England
255	28 June 1883	John Mien Catherine Thornton	John Miln Catherine Thornton 💍 1883/2115	Widower Spinster	Farmer	55 24	Spreydon Spreydon	30 years 7 years	In the House of Mr. Thornton	83/2232		28 June 1883	Rev. J. Christie, 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).