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 746

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
442	22 November 1883	Albert Harry Gooding Cooper May Ann Burns	Albert Henry Gooding Cooper Margaret Burns 💍 1883/2958	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder Dressmaker	27 26	Linwood Christchurch	2 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church	83/3061	22 November 1883	Rev. R. Best
443	24 November 1883	William Edward Leopold Sarah Coulter		Bachelor Spinster	Locomotive Fireman	21 21	Sydenham Sydenham	3 years 3 years	St. Saviours Church	83/3633	24 November 1883	Rev. H. V. Cocks
444	26 November 1883	Albert Everett Ada Gordon	Albert Everett Ada Gordon 💍 1883/3239	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. John's Church	83/3139	26 November 1883	Rev. H. M. Watson
445	27 November 1883	Edward John Knowlesley Annie Lynch	Edward John Knowsley Mary Ann Lynch 💍 1883/3243	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Waitress	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 months 1 year	In the House of Mr. Howes	83/3125	27 November 1883	Rev. C. Dallaston
446	27 November 1883	John L'Estrange Carroll Jane Wilkins	John L Estrange Carroll Jane Firkins 💍 1883/325	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registrars Office	83/3091	27 November 1883	M. Parkerson
447	28 November 1883	John Inglis Wright Rankeilor Kilgour Stewart	John Inglis Wright Rankeilor Kilgour Stewart 💍 1883/3107	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer Teacher	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 6 days	St. Pauls Church	83/3111	28 November 1883	Rev. I. Plushie
448	28 November 1883	Arthur Morton Sarah Balfour Clarke	Arthur Morton Sarah Balfour Clarke 💍 1883/3305	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter Servant	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 years	St. Johns Church	83/3539	28 November 1883	Rev. C. Merton
449	28 November 1883	James Pyecroft Mary Ann Cox	James Pycroft Mary Ann Cox 💍 1883/3251	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 9 years	In the Baptist Church	83/3124	28 November 1883	Rev. C. Dallaston
450	28 November 1883	Frank Malbon Ellesion Margaret Parkinson	Frank Malbon Allison Margaret Parkinson 💍 1883/3075	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	31 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 10 years	In the House	83/3182	28 November 1883	Rev. W. Dinwiddie

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).