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 1114

District of Mount Benger Quarter ending 30 June 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
91	10 April 1883	Robert Henry Ferguson Sarah Ann Kelly	Robert Henry Ferguson Sarah Ann Kelly 💍 1883/1536	Bachelor Spinster	Miner No Calling	35 years 23 years	Hillers Flat Hon Flat	Seven years 10 years	House of John Eady, Hon Flat	83/622		18 April 1883	Rev Robert Telford
92	20 April 1883	Bernt Thomson Elizabeth Knerston	Berent Thomson Elizabeth Knarston 💍 1883/1555	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter No Calling	29 years 28 years	Horsehoe Bend Do	3 months Do	House of Mackay, Horsehoe Bend	83/618		20 April 1883	Rev Robt Telford
93	21 May 1883	George Bennet Jane Patrick	George Bennet Jane Patrick 💍 1883/1556	Bachelor Spinster	Miner No Calling	30 years 19 years	Race Junction Spylaw	10 years 19 years	House of Steel, Spylaw, Mt Benger	83/619	Barbara Steel, mother	21 May 1883	Rev Robt Telford
94	2 June 1883	Duncan Kerr Emily Pritchard	Duncan Kerr Emily Pritchard 💍 1883/1557	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Dairymaid	32 years 22 years	Leurot Station Mt Benger	2 years 2 years	House of Robert Jubman, Hon Flat	83/620		2 June 1883	Rev Robt Telford
95	8 June 1883	John Ward Catherine Paine	John Ward Catherine Paine 💍 1883/1558	Bachelor Widow	Cook No Calling	41 years 32 years	Roxburgh Roxburgh	3 days 9 years	Presbyterian Manse	83/621		8 June 1883	Rev Robt Telford
96	20 June 1883	Mathew Guinan Betsy Ann Kitto	Matthew Guinan Betsy Ann Kitti 💍 1883/1537	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith No Calling	27 years 18 years	Hon Flat Do	7 years 18 months	House of James Kitto, Hon Flat	83/623	James Kitto, father	20 June 1883	Rev J Law

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).