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 791

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 1883 Registrar J Ward

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
289	3 April 1883	Samuel Tindall Ellen Nora Bounsall	Samuel Tindall Ellen Nora Boswell 💍 1883/1301	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	28 31	Ashburton Ashburton	2 years 3 days	Wesleyan Church	83/1411		5 April 1883	Revd. C. H. Standage, Wesleyan
290	9 April 1883	William Fitzgerald Mary Ann Madden	William Fitzgerald Mary Anne Madden 💍 1883/1299	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	23 17	Wakanui Wakanui	5 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	83/1409	Patrick Madden, Father	9 April 1883	Revd. Edmund Coffey, Roman Catholic
291	10 April 1883	Joe Tait Louisa Travener Robins	Joe Tait Louisa Tavener Robbins 💍 1883/3331	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	29 24	Fairfield Ashburton	6 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	83/3566		13 April 1883	J Ward, Registrar
292	16 April 1883	Francis William Martin Frances Elizabeth Fuhrmann	Francis William Martin Frances Elizabeth Fuhrmann 💍 1883/3330	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 23	Ashburton Ashburton	3 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	83/3565		16 April 1883	J Ward, Registrar
293	24 April 1883	David Stevens Elizabeth Baxter	David Stevens Elizabeth Baxter 💍 1883/1298	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	30 23	Windermere Windermere	6 years 6 months	St. Stephen's Church	83/1408		24 April 1883	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
294	26 April 1883	William John Welsh Lilian Harriet Georgina Record	William John Welsh Lilian Harriett Georgina Secord 💍 1883/3332	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	18 15	Ashburton Ashburton	6 years 1 week	Registrar's Office	83/3564	Nicholas Welsh, Father; William Kemble, Step father of Bride	26 April 1883	J Ward, Registrar
295	26 April 1883	John Milne Jane Levey	John Milne Jane Croy 💍 1883/1302	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	36 35	Longbeach Longbeach	8 years 1 year	Presbyterian Manse	83/1412		26 April 1883	Revd. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian
296	30 April 1883	Robert Fuller Elsie Hampstead	Robert Fuller Elsie Hampstead 💍 1883/1297	Widower Widow	Labourer Domestic Servant	33 39	Ashburton Ashburton	11 weeks 8 weeks	St. Stephen's Church	83/1409		30 April 1883	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
297	8 May 1883	Duncan McMillan Johanna Stewart	Duncan McMillan Johanna Stewart 💍 1883/3333	Bachelor Spinster	Stable-Keeper Domestic Servant	35 21	Tinwald Tinwald	7 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	83/3568		8 May 1883	J Ward, Registrar

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).