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 738

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1883 Registrar M Walkerson

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
370	1 October 1883	James Bruce Sarah Blackler	James Bruce Sarah Blackler 💍 1883/3124	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Servant	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 3 years	In the House of Mr Murray	83/3104		1 October 1883	Rev J. Hemsley
371	2 October 1883	John Ernest Francis Margaret		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 5 years	In the House of Mr Clifford	83/3104		2 October 1883	Rev J. Hemsley
372	3 October 1883	Edgar James Andrews Mary Letitia Mercer	Edgar James Andrews Mary Letitia Mercer 💍 1883/2980	Bachelor Spinster	Station Master	21 18	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 6 years	In the Saviours Church	83/3145	Henderson	3 October 1883	Rev H. K. Cocks
373	3 October 1883	Alexander Howden Sarah Jane Hyndman	Alexander Howden Sarah Jane Hyndman 💍 1883/3056	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 6 years	In the House of Mr Hyndman	83/3189	Hyndman	3 October 1883	Rev J. R. Cairns
374	3 October 1883	Richard John Sutcliffe Sarah Jane Barlow	Richard John Sutcliffe Sarah Jane Barlow 💍 1883/3123	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 3 days	In the House of Mr Beavors, College Street	83/3103		3 October 1883	Rev J. Hemsley
375	3 October 1883	Henry Ackermann Susan Allan	Henri Ackermann Susan Allan 💍 1883/3062	Bachelor Spinster	Basket Maker Servant	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 3 days	In the House of Henry Ackermann, North Street	83/3195		3 October 1883	Rev J. Ward
376	3 October 1883	Charles Alexander Wells Florence Linnie Lane	Charles Alexander Wells Florence Lizzie Lane 💍 1883/2963	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 20 years	In St Marys Church, Merivale	83/3066		3 October 1883	Rev J. Flavell
377	4 October 1883	Peter McFarlane Helen During	Peter McFarlane Helen Ewing 💍 1883/3125	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	33 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the House of Donald Cameron, Account Street	83/3105		4 October 1883	Rev J. Hemsley
378	4 October 1883	Frederick Ratou Anne Welsh	Frederick Paton Anne Welsh 💍 1883/2967	Bachelor Widow	Shoemaker Housekeeper	26 27	Sydenham Sydenham	3 years 9 years	In the Registrars Office	83/3069		4 October 1883	Registrar of Marriages

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).