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 745

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
433	14 November 1883	James Wright Catherine Munro	James Wright Catherine Munro 💍 1883/3110	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 3 weeks	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	83/114	Mother	14 November 1883	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
434	15 November 1883	George Veel Marion Brown	George Neil Marion Browne 💍 1883/2977	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	35 42	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the House of Mr. Wardley	83/13057		15 November 1883	Rev. Z. Best, Wesleyan
435	17 November 1883	Francis James Gibbs Elizabeth Mary Capstick	Francis James Gibbs Elizabeth Mary Capstack 💍 1883/3238	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	38 17	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 3 years	St. John's Church, Christchurch	83/138	Father	17 November 1883	Rev. H. E. M. Watson, Church of England
436	20 November 1883	William Boatwood Mary Day	William Boatwood Mary Day 💍 1883/323	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Servant	21 21	Woolston Christchurch	18 months 3 years	In the Registrar's Office	83/3089		20 November 1883	Registrar of Marriages
437	21 November 1883	Elias Sampson Head Nancy Martin	Elias Sampson Head Nanny Martin 💍 1883/3118	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 5 years	In the House of Mr. Martin, Addington	83/3121		21 November 1883	Rev. J. Wilson, Bible Christian
438	21 November 1883	John Morgan Susannah Woollorton	John Morgan Susannah Wooltorton 💍 1883/3235	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 23	Spreydon Spreydon	3 years 16 years	In the House of Mr. Woollorton	83/3133		21 November 1883	Rev. G. C. Perry, Methodist
439	21 November 1883	Balthasar Biel Ellen Louisa Martin	Balthasar Biel Ellen Louisa Martin 💍 1883/324	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 21	Woolston Woolston	6 years 21 years	In the Registrar's Office	83/3090		21 November 1883	Registrar of Marriages
440	22 November 1883	Benjamin Bradley Margaret Craw	Benjamin Bradley Margaret Craw 💍 1883/3063	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	26 21	Papanui Papanui	7 months 21 years	In the House of Mr. Ballachey, Papanui	83/3196		22 November 1883	Rev. W. Ballachey, Church of England
441	22 November 1883	Patrick Dolan Mary Mahon	Patrick Dolan Mary Mahon 💍 1883/3133	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/3162		22 November 1883	Rev. J. Greaty, Roman Catholic

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).