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 731

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
322	21 August 1883	William Tayler Kate Nation	William Tayler Kate Nation 💍 1883/2070	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the Registrars Office	83/2211	21 August 1883	Registrar Marriages M Mallipson
323	22 August 1883	William Smith Grace Jane Buller	William Smith Grace Jane Butter 💍 1883/2244	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Housekeeper	43	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	In St. Lukes Church Christchurch	83/2156	22 August 1883	Rev. R. Aldred
324	25 August 1883	Samuel Webster Smith Emma Thomas	Samuel Webster Smith Emma Thomas 💍 1883/2170	Widower Widow	Printer Dressmaker	45 40	St. Albans St. Albans	5 years 20 years		83/2254	25 August 1883	Rev. L. Aldred Wesleyan
325	27 August 1883	Henrich Obeling Elizabeth Sarah Lousia Shaw	Herrich Ebeling Elizabeth Sarah Louisa Shaw 💍 1883/2168	Bachelor	Farmer Housekeeper	61 26	Greenpark Greenpark	18 years 1 week	In the Presbyterian Church	83/2255	27 August 1883	Rev. W. Cree Presbyterian
326	27 August 1883	George Addington Turner Martha Sarah Samuels	George Addington Turner Martha Sarah Samuels 💍 1883/2245	Bachelor	Mechanical Engineer	25 26	Christchurch [usual district Wanganui] Christchurch	8 days 7 years	In St. Lukes Church Christchurch	83/2157	27 August 1883	Rev. R. Aldred Church of England
327	27 August 1883	John Syme Henderson Maria McGachie	John Syme Henderson Maria McGachie 💍 1883/2071	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 29	Christchurch Christchurch	5 weeks 7 years	In the Registrars Office Christchurch	83/2212	27 August 1883	Registrar Marriages M Mallipson
328	27 August 1883	David Ramsay Hay Glennie Rebecca Hodgkinson	David Ramsay Hay Annie Rebecca Hodgkinson 💍 1883/3201	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	42 24	Riccarton Riccarton	2 years 2 years	In the Riccarton Church	83/3629	27 August 1883	Rev. E. Bowen
329	28 August 1883	Thomas Avery Wiremu Caroline Terry	Thomas Avery Wrenn Caroline Terry 💍 1883/2126	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	30 34	Christchurch Sumner	1 year 8 years	In St. Johns Church Christchurch	83/2220	28 August 1883	Rev. H.C.M. Watson Church of England
330	28 August 1883	Edward Kent Lucy Holloway	Edward Kent Lucy Holloway 💍 1883/2110	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	35 24	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 4 years	In St. Michaels Church Christchurch	83/2221	28 August 1883	Rev. W. Harper Church of England

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).