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 711

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
166	1 May 1883	William Henry Small Edith Plena Waters	William Henry Small Edith Eliza Waters 💍 1883/1186	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 1 month	Registrars Office	83/1284		1 May 1883	Registrar Marriages M Walkerson
167	1 May 1883	James Robert Brown Pheobe Ann Delamain	James Robert Brown Phoebe Aimee Delamain 💍 1883/1178	Bachelor Spinster	Harness Maker	30 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	St Michaels, Christchurch	83/1333	William Delamain, Father	1 May 1883	Rev W. Harper, Church of England
168	2 May 1883	John Brabyn Hannah Speechley	John Brabyn Hannah Speechley 💍 1883/1197	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 17	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 2 weeks	Registrars Office	83/1285		2 May 1883	Registrar Marriages M Walkerson
169	3 May 1883	Samuel Nicholls Annie Petersen	Samuel Nicholls Elise Anna Petersen 💍 1883/1227	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Dressmaker	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 2 months	St Peters, Jewuka Church	83/1354		3 May 1883	Rev C. J. Merton, Church of England
170	3 May 1883	Frederick Charles Hawley Maud Miriam Seager	Frederic Charles Hawley Fanny Maud Miriam Seager 💍 1883/1211	Bachelor Spinster		24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	St Michaels Church	83/1334		3 May 1883	Rev W. Harper, Church of England
171	4 May 1883	Thomas Edward Honeycliffe Compton Pillow	Thomas Edward Toneycliffe Elsie Compton Pillour 💍 1883/1237	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 11 years	Baptist Chapel	83/1360	Thomas Pillow, Father	4 May 1883	Rev C. Dallaston, Baptist
172	5 May 1883	William McSweeney Margarette Sullivan	William McSweeney Margaret O'Sullivan 💍 1883/3128	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 9 months	Roman Catholic Church, Hororata	83/3149		5 May 1883	Rev L. Geraty, Roman Catholic
173	5 May 1883	George Bennett Flora McIarrow	George Bennett Flora McJarrow 💍 1883/1204 George Bennett Jane Barr Anderson 💍 1883/2257	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	83/1286	William McIarrow, Father	5 May 1883	Registrar Marriages M Walkerson
174	7 May 1883	William George Turner Sarah Amelia Lawson	William George Turner Sarah Amelia Lawson 💍 1883/1206	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	39 19	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	Registrars Office	83/1288	James Thomas Lawson, Father	7 May 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).