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 725

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
286	24 July 1883	Walter Stuart Parker Ellen Whithair	Walter Stuart Parker Ellen Whithair 💍 1883/2242	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 24	Templeton Spreydon	10 years 5 years	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	83/2154	24 July 1883	Rev. R. A. Lingard, Church of England
287	26 July 1883	Patrick Jeremiah Herlehy Jane Peet	Patrick Jeremiah Herlihy Jane Peet 💍 1883/3148	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	30 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Lyttelton	83/2153	26 July 1883	Rev. L. Ginaty, Roman Catholic
288	27 July 1883	George Henry Lee Marian Ramsay Palmer	George Henry Lee Marianne Emily Palmer 💍 1883/2129	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 23 years	St. Michaels Church, Tepuka	83/2223	27 July 1883	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
289	27 July 1883	Edmund Simmons Anne Carver	Edmund Simmons Anne Owen 💍 1883/3580	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 11 months	In the Registrars Office	83/2205	27 July 1883	Registrar Marriages, M Walkerson
290	28 July 1883	John Robinson Ellen Selina Moore	John Robinson Ellen Selina Moore 💍 1883/2251	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	43 30	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 10 days	In St. Saviours Church	83/2162	28 July 1883	Rev. H. V. Cocks, Church of England
291	28 July 1883	Frederick James Bowton Katherine Emma Day	Frederick James Bowton Catherine Emma Day 💍 1883/2182	Widower Spinster	Master Mariner	50 24	Christchurch Christchurch	30 years 24 years	In the House of G. F. Day	83/2245	28 July 1883	Rev. W. Burrowsdie, Presbyterian
292	28 July 1883	John Henry Jones Sarah Carter	John Henry Jones Sarah Carter 💍 1883/2162	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Dressmaker	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 20 years	In the House of Mr. J. V. S. Daltry	83/2249	28 July 1883	Rev. J. Camps, Wesleyan
293	28 July 1883	Thomas Adolphus Raffles Maria Percy	Thomas Adolphus Reffles Maria Piercy 💍 1883/2191	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	47 48	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 5 years	In the House of Mr. Raffles	83/2178	28 July 1883	Rev. R. Best, Wesleyan
294	30 July 1883	Alfred Phillip Farrell Mary Ann Kingston	Alfred Phillip Farrell Mary Ann Kingston 💍 1883/3582	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the Registrars Office	83/2207	30 July 1883	Registrar Marriages, M Walkerson

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).