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 789

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 March 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
277	2 January 1883	James Dwyer Mary O'Grady	James Dwyer Mary O'Grady 💍 1883/521	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	36 years 25 years	Wakanui Ashburton	8 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton	83/544		2 January 1883	Revd. Edmund Coffey Roman Catholic
278	10 January 1883	Samuel Thompson Ellen Jessie Sullivan	Samuel Thompson Ellen Jessie Sullivan 💍 1883/525	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 years 18 years	Tinwald Tinwald	2 years 3 weeks	Wesleyan Parsonage, Ashburton	83/550	Sarah Teresa Lancaster, mother, Ashburton	15 January 1883	Revd. Charles H. Standage
279	10 January 1883	John Barr Emma Dawson	John Barr Emma Dawson 💍 1883/528	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 18 years	Longbeach Longbeach	3 years 8 years	Private dwelling house of Andrew Dawson, Longbeach	83/553	Andrew Dawson, Father, Longbeach	17 January 1883	Revd. A. M. Beattie
280	1 February 1883	Walter George Biggs Mary Susan Sanderson	Walter George Biggs Mary Susan Sanderson 💍 1883/520	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	31 years 22 years	Tinwald Tinwald	5 years 5 years	St. Andrew's Church, Tinwald	83/546		1 February 1883	Revd. E. A. Scott
281	5 February 1883	Michael Stickey Mary Neenan	Michael Hickey Mary Reenan 💍 1883/522 Michael Markey Mary Hogan 💍 1884/1828	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	42 years 21 years	Alford Station Ashburton	5 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton	83/548		5 February 1883	Revd. Edmund Coffey
282	10 March 1883	James Dellow Jessie Boulton	James Dellow Jessie Boulton 💍 1883/527	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	26 years 20 years	Mayfield Mayfield	15 years 20 years	Wesleyan Church, Ashburton	83/552	Richard Boulton, Father, Alford Forest	22 March 1883	Revd. Charles H. Standage
283	10 March 1883	John Bennett Catherine Eliza Legg	John Bennett Catherine Eliza Segg 💍 1883/858 John Bennett Margaret Ann Todd 💍 1883/144	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 4 months	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	83/556		10 March 1883	J. Ward, Registrar
284	12 March 1883	Albert James Andrews Kate Annie Crocker	Albert James Andrews Kate Annie Crocker 💍 1883/526	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	28 years 25 years	Ashburton Ashburton	8 years 3 days	Private dwelling house of Mr. Thomas Andrews, Ashburton	83/551		12 March 1883	Revd. Charles H. Standage
285	16 March 1883	Duncan McDonald Church Florence Vincent	Duncan McDonald Church Florence Vincent 💍 1883/529	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic Servant	34 years 23 years	Ashburton Ashburton	11 months 8 years	Presbyterian Church, Ashburton	83/554		16 March 1883	Revd. A. M. Beattie

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).