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 795

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 September 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
302	28 July 1883	Benjamin Baker Rosanna Perryman	Benjamin Baker Rosanna Perryman 💍 1883/2343	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Domestic Servant	28 years 20 years	Ashburton Ashburton	4 years 5 years	St Stephen's Church Ashburton	83/12287	William Edward Perryman, Father	28 July 1883	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
303	28 July 1883	James Gudsell Annie Moriarty	James Gudsell Annie Moriarty 💍 1883/2344	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	31 years 19 years	Tinwald Tinwald	9 years 6 months	St Andrew's Church Tinwald	83/12288	Ellen Moriarty, Guardian	30 July 1883	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
304	13 August 1883	Henry Hicks Laura Watkins	Henry Hicks Laura Watkins 💍 1883/2348	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Milliner	26 years 24 years	Ashburton Ashburton	9 years 5 years	In the private dwelling house of Edward Watkins Ashburton	83/12291		13 August 1883	Revd. John Nixon, Primitive Methodist
305	13 August 1883	Edward Watkins Jane Cameron	Edward Watkins Jane Cameron 💍 1883/2349	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Milliner	21 years 17 years	Ashburton Ashburton	5 years 8 months	In the private dwelling house of Edward Watkins Ashburton	83/12292	Mary Ann Prentice, Mother	13 August 1883	Revd. John Nixon, Primitive Methodist
306	27 August 1883	Frederick Zachariah Duckett Herriman Elizabeth Eleanor Hurst	Frederick Zaccheus Duckett Ferriman Elizabeth Eleanor Hunt 💍 1883/2345	Bachelor Spinster	Land Agent	32 years 26 years	Ashburton Ashburton	4 years 16 years	St Stephen's Church Ashburton	83/12289		27 August 1883	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
307	30 August 1883	James Purchase Providence Florence Fitt	James Purchase Providence Florence Fitt 💍 1883/3339	Widower Spinster	Hair-dresser	31 years 43 years	Ashburton Ashburton	14 years 2 years	Registrar's Office Ashburton	83/13573		30 August 1883	J Ward, Registrar
308	6 September 1883	Audley Edward Merewether Mabel Rees	Audley Edward Merewether Mabel Rees 💍 1883/2220	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	28 years 18 years	Lake Heron Ashburton Timaru	6 weeks 7 weeks	Parish Church Timaru	83/12313	William Gilbert Rees, Father	6 September 1883	Venerable Archdeacon Harper, Church of England
309	15 September 1883	Dugald Macfarlane Anna Maria Young	Dugald Macfarlane Anna Maria Young 💍 1883/2347	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager Domestic Servant	45 years 30 years	Bruceleigh Longbeach Station	9 months 3 years	Longbeach Station Church	83/12290		15 September 1883	Venerable Archdeacon Wilson and Revd. A. W. Hands, Church of England
310	15 September 1883	Niel Ohlson Flora Emily Bamford	Niel Ohlson Flora Emily Bamford 💍 1883/2351	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	26 years 18 years	Alford Forest Alford Forest	9 years 11 years	Private dwelling house of Henry Knight, Alford Forest	83/12294	Henry Knight, Guardian	15 September 1883	Revd Alexander McLennan, Presbyterian

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).