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 734

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
349	10 September 1883	Edwin Cramp Ruth Ceslie	Edwin Cramp Ruth Aslin 💍 1883/2192	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year Linwood 3 months in the House of Mr. Austin	In the House of Mr. Austin	83/2179	Mr. Austin	10 September 1883	Rev. R. Best
350	10 September 1883	John Robert Nicolle Mary Joy Pepper	John Robert Nicolle Mary Joy Pepper 💍 1883/2197	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years in the Wesleyan Chapel 9 years East Belt	Wesleyan Chapel	83/2166	Mother	10 September 1883	Rev. W. Tansley
351	11 September 1883	Lewis Hudson Sarah Poulling Sanders	Lewis Hudson Sarah Coulling Sanders 💍 1883/2184	Bachelor Spinster	Wesleyan Minister	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days in the House Woodend of Rev. W. Morley 1 week St. Albans	In the House Woodend of Rev. W. Morley	83/2147		11 September 1883	Rev. J. Buller
352	12 September 1883	George William Clark Caroline Amelia Winny	George William Clark Caroline Amelia Winny 💍 1883/2112	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 28	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days in St. Michael's Church 26 years Christchurch	St. Michael's Church	83/2229		12 September 1883	Rev. W. Harper
353	12 September 1883	Thomas Dewar Boag Helen Raglesome		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Fendal Town Christchurch	24 years in the House of Mr. Raglesome 20 years Spreydon	In the House of Mr. Raglesome	83/2171	Mr. Raglesome	12 September 1883	Rev. T. R. Cassels
354	13 September 1883	Henry Andrews Amelia Wilkins	Henry Andrews Amelia Wilkins 💍 1883/2979	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	32 20	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years in St. Saviours Church 8 years Sydenham	St. Saviours Church	83/1344	Wilkins	13 September 1883	Rev. H. S. Cocks
355	13 September 1883	Thomas Pender Margaret Brown	Thomas Moonan Barbara Brown 💍 1884/3773	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years in the Roman Catholic Church 3 years Christchurch	Roman Catholic Church	83/1359		13 September 1883	Rev. J. McGenity
356	15 September 1883	Gelbert Hamilton McHaffie Edith Laurence		Bachelor Spinster		22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days in the Registry Office Timaru 4 years Christchurch	Registry Office Timaru	83/2214	Laurence	15 September 1883	Registrar Marriages Markerson
357	15 September 1883	John Gileatt Martha Brown	Tom Gillatt Martha Brown 💍 1883/2965	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 19	Springston Springston	4 years in the Wesleyan Chapel 5 years Springston	Wesleyan Chapel	83/3068	Brown	15 September 1883	Rev. H. Cannell

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).