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 726

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1883 Registrar M. Parkerson

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
295	31 July 1883	Patrick Drury Mary McCormick	Patrick Drury Mary McCormack 💍 1883/3149	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Spinster Servant	30 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/15154	31 July 1883	Rev. L. Quirky
296	1 August 1883	James Turnbull Matilda Maria Berry	James Turnbull Matilda Maria Berry 💍 1883/2125	Bachelor Spinster	Bailiff Dressmaker	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 9 years	In St. John's Church	83/2219	1 August 1883	Rev. H. C. Watson
297	2 August 1883	John Mitchell Emily Watkins	John Mitchell Emily Watkins 💍 1883/2107	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Spinster Servant	29 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 months	In St. Michael's Church	83/2224	2 August 1883	Rev. W. Harper
298	2 August 1883	David Severe Elizabeth Gilman	David Stevens Elizabeth Baxter 💍 1883/1298 David Barnett Elizabeth Dodson 💍 1883/1948	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Teacher	28 21	Lincoln Lincoln	20 years 4 years	In the Presbyterian Church	83/2254	2 August 1883	Rev. R. J. Porter
299	4 August 1883	William Cromie Letticia Wilson	William Cromie Letitia Wilson 💍 1883/2206	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Spinster Servant	23 23	Christchurch Sydenham	3 days 3 days	In the House of Rev. J. R. Cairns	83/2169	4 August 1883	Rev. J. R. Cairns
300	6 August 1883	John Russell Selina Major	John Russell Selina Major 💍 1883/2118	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper Spinster Servant	37 30	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 16 years	In St. Paul's Church	83/2234	6 August 1883	Rev. J. Uenslie
301	6 August 1883	Thomas Voice Rachel Whitehead	Thomas Voice Rachel Whitehead 💍 1883/2203	Widower Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	54 59	Templeton Christchurch	8 years 8 years	In the Bible Christian Chapel	83/2189	6 August 1883	Rev. J. Wilson
302	7 August 1883	John McGill Mary Welsh	John McGill Mary Welsh 💍 1883/2183	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Spinster	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Presbyterian Church	83/2246	7 August 1883	Rev. W. Scrimgeour
303	8 August 1883	Charles Allard Elizabeth Wyatt	Charles Allard Ann Elizabeth Wyatt 💍 1883/2243	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Spinster	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 9 years	In St. Luke's Church	83/2155	8 August 1883	Rev. Z. A. Lingard

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).