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 701

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
80	6 March 1883	Charles Edmund Sherlock Ellen Wakefield	Charles Edmund Sherlock Ellen Wakefield 💍 1883/472	Bachelor Spinster	Editor	53 41	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 8 months	In H. Duller's Church	83/522	6 March 1883	Rev. R. A. Lingard, Church of England
81	6 March 1883	John Joshua Pridgeon Mary Pridgeon	John Josling Mary Ann Pridgeon 💍 1883/485	Widower Widow		60 45	Christchurch Oxford Terrace	3 days 4 days	In the Baptist Church	83/571	6 March 1883	Rev. R. Wollaston, Baptist
82	7 March 1883	Bonner Lynch Jane MacKenzie	Dormer Lynch Jane Mackenzie 💍 1883/443	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	38 28	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 14 days	In the Registrars Office	83/464	7 March 1883	Registrar Markerson
83	7 March 1883	Edward John Wigg Elizabeth Horne	Edward John Wigg Elizabeth Horne 💍 1883/459	Bachelor Widow	Carter	27 29	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 12 years	In the Registrars Office	83/465	7 March 1883	Registrar Markerson
84	8 March 1883	Charles William Rees Catherine Bradley	Charles William Rees Catherine Bradley 💍 1883/442	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 4 months	In the Registrars Office	83/466	8 March 1883	Registrar Markerson
85	9 March 1883	John Ernest Duller Ada Caroline Peace	John Erneste Ada Caroline Pearce 💍 1883/473	Bachelor Spinster	Housekeeper	37 25	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 3 years	By H. Duller's Church	83/523	9 March 1883	Rev. E. A. Lingard, Church of England
86	12 March 1883	James Maxwell Susan Doherty	James Maxwell Susan Doherty 💍 1883/476	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 4 years	In H. Duller's Church	83/525	12 March 1883	Rev. R. A. Lingard, Church of England
87	12 March 1883	Henry Williamson Ellen Lawry	Henry Williamson Ellen Lanyon 💍 1883/478	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Dressmaker	22 24	Christchurch Tuam Street	15 years 4 years	In the House of Mr. Schmidt	83/524	12 March 1883	Rev. R. Taylor, Methodist
88	13 March 1883	Harry Bell Johnstone Isabella Munro	Harry Bell Johnstone Isabella Munro 💍 1883/550 Andrew Wilson Isabella Munro 💍 1883/1399	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	53 43	Sumner Lincoln	5 years 10 years	In the Church of England, Sumner	83/607	13 March 1883	Rev. A. C. Wright, 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).