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 723

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
268	6 July 1883	James Lemon Elizabeth Ann Woodham	James Lunnon Elizabeth Ann Woodham 💍 1883/3575	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Dressmaker	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 16 years	Registrar's Office	83/2198		6 July 1883	Registrar of Marriages M Walker
269	6 July 1883	William James Harrington Mary Louisa Howard	William James Harrington Mary Theresa Howard 💍 1883/2177	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	29 25	Christchurch Lyttelton	27 years 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/2263		6 July 1883	Rev. P. Tracey Roman Catholic
270	6 July 1883	William Leonard Forbes Martin Elizabeth Helen Hotton	William Leonard Forbes Martin Elizabeth Nolan 💍 1883/2080	Bachelor Spinster		24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 Year 1 Year	In the Registrar's Office	83/2200		6 July 1883	Registrar of Marriages M Walker
271	7 July 1883	Ira Spencer Lord Smith Margaret Smith	Ira Spencer Lord Margaret Smith 💍 1883/3069	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 17	Courtenay Courtenay	22 Years 2 Years	In the Presbyterian Church	83/3207	James Smith Father	7 July 1883	Rev. H. B. Burnett Presbyterian
272	7 July 1883	Edward John Stanford Mary Jane Prebble	Edward John Stanford Mary Jane Prebble 💍 1883/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Pebbleton Pebbleton	3 Years 18 Years	In the Little Saints Church	83/2183	John Prebble Father	7 July 1883	Rev. A. C. Wright Church of England
273	7 July 1883	James Townsend Partridge Emily Maria Vogel	James Townsend Partridge Emily Mana Vogel 💍 1883/2252	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Burnham Christchurch	5 Years 21 Years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	83/2163		7 July 1883	Rev. W. Linsley Wesleyan
274	9 July 1883	John William King Rose Anne Humphries	John William King Rose Ann Humphries 💍 1883/2241	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 4 years	In the St. Luke's Church	83/2153		9 July 1883	Rev. F. A. Lingard Church of England
275	10 July 1883	John Cleland Susanna Betts Oakley	John Cleland Susanna Betts Oakley 💍 1883/2204	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Presbyterian Church	83/2164		10 July 1883	Rev. J. R. Cairns Presbyterian
276	11 July 1883	James Butcher Annie Quick	James Butcher Annie Quick 💍 1883/2081	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 4 years	In the Registrar's Office	83/2201	Thomas Quick Father	11 July 1883	Registrar of Marriages M Walker

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).