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 742

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
406	23 October 1883	Edward Wilson Ruth Mundy	Edward Wilson Ruth Mundy 💍 1883/336	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Machinist	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years in the District 1 year Christchurch	Registrar Office	83/3078		23 October 1883	M Parkerson
407	25 October 1883	Edward Townshead Margaret Ann Jane Johnston	Edward Townshend Margaret Ann Jane Johnston 💍 1883/3142	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Lincoln Springston	18 years in the District 8 years Church	Church	83/3140		25 October 1883	Rev I. F. Teadle
408	25 October 1883	Eustace Marian Walshe Caroline Wheeler	Eustace Varian Walshe Caroline Wheeler 💍 1883/2981	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	26 19	Sydenham Sydenham	6 months in the District 2 years Church	Church	83/3176	Wheeler, Father	25 October 1883	Rev H. B. Coeds, Church of England
409	29 October 1883	Henry Zerlof Elizabeth Alexander	Henric Eckof Elizabeth Alexander 💍 1883/2982	Widower Widow	Paper Runner Housekeeper	69 29	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years in the District 8 years Christchurch	Church	83/3144		29 October 1883	Rev E. A. Lingard, Church of England
410	29 October 1883	Thomas Pauwete Mary Jane Hueston	Thomas Pannett Mary Jane Johnstone 💍 1883/3143 Thomas Trowell Mary Jane Batten 💍 1883/1911 Thomas Faith Mary Jane Gunn 💍 1883/1721 Thomas Bennett Mary Jane McPike 💍 1883/1984 Thomas Reeves Mary Ann Rushton 💍 1883/1594	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 21	Springston Springston	20 years in the District 4 months Church	Church	83/3171		29 October 1883	Rev I. F. Teadle, Church of England
411	29 October 1883	John James Clark Mary Ann Gardner	John James Clark Mary Ann Gardner 💍 1883/2983	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Servant	40 29	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years in the District 3 years Christchurch	Church	83/3178		29 October 1883	Rev E. A. Lingard, Church of England
412	29 October 1883	Henry Richard Hice Ellen Davis	Henry Richard Hill Ellen Davis 💍 1883/338	Widower Widow	Labourer Servant	41 30	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years in the District 7 years Christchurch	Registrars Office	83/3080		29 October 1883	M Parkerson
413	30 October 1883	George Henry Stanborough Millicent Marks	George Henry Stanborough Ann Millicent Marks 💍 1883/339	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Servant	30 42	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks in the District 2 weeks Christchurch	Registrars Office	83/3081		30 October 1883	M Parkerson
414	30 October 1883	Joseph Massey Mary Clarke	Joseph Massey Mary Clarke 💍 1883/3232	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 19	Richmond Richmond	7 months in the House 7 months Richmond	House of Robert Clarke	83/3124	Robert Clarke, Father	30 October 1883	Rev C. Dallaston, Baptist

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).