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 732

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
331	29 August 1883	James Thomas Pratt Mary Ann Smith	James Thomas Pratt Mary Ann Smith 💍 1883/2077 Thomas Shepherd Milne Mary Ann Smith 💍 1883/827	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 23	St. Albans Lincoln	3 years 8 years	In the Baptist Chapel	83/12194		29 August 1883	Rev W. E. Spencer
332	30 August 1883	George Guido Schwartz Jennie Farquhar Holman	George Guido Schwartz Jennie Farquhar Holman 💍 1883/3150	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	29 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 5 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/3155		30 August 1883	Rev L. McGuity
333	1 September 1883	Charles Johnston Mary Louisa Tremeary	Charles Johnstone Mary Louisa Trencary 💍 1883/2163	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Housekeeper	41 32	Sydenham Sydenham	2 years 2 years	In the Wesleyan Church	83/2250		1 September 1883	Rev J. Creerup
334	3 September 1883	John Hill Marianne Salter	John Hill Marianne Salter 💍 1883/2108	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	In St. Michael's, Waikari Church	83/2225		3 September 1883	Rev W. Harper
335	3 September 1883	James Mahalan Margaret Sheridan	James Mahalm Margaret Sheridan 💍 1883/3151	Bachelor Spinster	Clothier	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 19 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Lyttelton	83/3156	Thomas Sheridan, Father	3 September 1883	Rev L. McGuity
336	4 September 1883	Charles Inder Emma Kent	Charles Inder Emma Kent 💍 1883/2109	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 months	In St. Michael's, Rakaia Church	83/2226	Susan Kent, Mother	4 September 1883	Rev W. Harper
337	4 September 1883	Frederick Adolphus Bamford Fannie Stuckey	Frederick Adolphus Bamford Fannie Stuckey 💍 1883/2246	Bachelor Widow	Law Clerk	24 29	Woolston Woolston	9 years 9 years	In St. Luke's Church	83/2158		4 September 1883	Rev R. A. Harper
338	4 September 1883	Albert Palmer Amelia Sangster	Albert Palmer Amelia Sansom 💍 1883/2255	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	26 27	Christchurch Rangiora	15 years 15 years	In the Methodist Chapel, Rangiora	83/2143		4 September 1883	Rev Z. C. Perry
339	5 September 1883	Richard Ernest Milkhave Alice Receipt		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 23 years	In St. Michael's Church	83/2228	Alice Johnston	5 September 1883	Rev W. Harper

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).