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 751

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
487	27 December 1883	Sidney Heet Elizabeth Grose	Sidney Fleet Elizabeth Grose 💍 1883/3255	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Spinster	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the Baptist Chapel, 4 Oxford Terrace	83/3123		27 December 1883	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
488	27 December 1883	Hector Bond Sarah Clean Lawport	Hector Bond Sarah Ann Lamport 💍 1883/3256	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	28 27	Richmond Christchurch	3 months 4 years	In the House of Mr. Dallaston	83/3124		27 December 1883	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
489	27 December 1883	Francis Jones Louisa Middleton	Francis Jones Louisa Middleton 💍 1884/480	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer Servant	31 27	Sydenham Sydenham	19 years 4 years	In St. Michaels Church	84/508		27 December 1883	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
490	27 December 1883	John Doran Gobbe Emma Rose Wisby	John Doran Gobbe Emma Rose Wisby 💍 1883/3114	Bachelor Spinster	Circus Manager Principal	21 17	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 4 years	In the Registrars Office	83/3100	Mr. Thomas Wisby, Father	27 December 1883	J. M. Mackerson, Registrar Northcote
491	28 December 1883	Charles Stewart McGregor Eliza Jane Jenkenson	Charles Stewart Macgregor Eliza Jane Jenkinson 💍 1883/3077	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	37 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 4 days	In the House of Rev. W. Dewriddie, Tuam Street	83/3186		28 December 1883	Rev. W. Dewriddie, Presbyterian
492	28 December 1883	Gustaf Pehr Salvander Jane Ann Gill	Gustaf Peter Solvander Jane Ann Gill 💍 1884/443	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Dressmaker	31 27	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 8 months	In the House of Mr. French, Sandiford St.	84/494		28 December 1883	Rev. J. Creemle, Wesleyan
493	28 December 1883	George Payling Julia Judd	George Payling Julia Judd 💍 1884/449	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Spinster	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 4 years	In St. Lukes Church	84/499		28 December 1883	Rev. Q. a. Lingard, Church of England
494	29 December 1883	Henry Bentley Bartlett Agnes Sturgeon	Henry Bentley Bartlett Agnes Sturgeon 💍 1883/3121	Bachelor Spinster	Woolclasser Spinster	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 14 days	In the Registrars Office	83/3107		29 December 1883	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Mackerson
495	29 December 1883	Edwin Link Agnes King	Edwin Lunt Agnes King 💍 1883/3141	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In the house of Kyle, Brooking Montreal	83/3169		29 December 1883	Rev. P. R. Cairns, 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 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).