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 697

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1883 Registrar M. Parker

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
26	20 January 1883	William John Backhouse Cityes Phoebe Topp	William John Atyeo Phoebe Topp 💍 1883/3316	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	23 21	Christchurch Woolston	3 days 1 week	Church	83/3530	20 January 1883	Rev. C. J. Merton
27	20 January 1883	Edward Trebble Emma Jane Collier	Edward Prebble Emma Jane Collier 💍 1883/484	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 20	Prebbleton Prebbleton	20 years 9 months	Church	83/570	20 January 1883	Rev. C. C. Wright
28	22 January 1883	William Truth Mary Buchanan	William Smith Mary Buckman 💍 1883/467 William Smith Mary McBratney 💍 1883/1533 William Smith Mary Bolwell 💍 1884/317	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent Dressmaker	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 10 years	In the Dukes, Ashburton Church	83/574	22 January 1883	Rev. R. A. Sugden
29	22 January 1883	John Mackay Ellen Gallagher	John MacKay Ellen Gallagher 💍 1883/670	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	In the House of Mrs. Phillips Christchurch	3 years 7 years	Victoria Street	83/4257	22 January 1883	Rev. J. Plenslie
30	23 January 1883	William Henry Pascoe Annie Sarah Charlick	William Henry Pascoe Annie Sarah Charlick 💍 1883/938	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Nurse	31 31	Christchurch In the Wards	6 years 4 years	Church	83/484	23 January 1883	Rev. H. R. East
31	23 January 1883	Francis Joseph Maguire Annie Daly	Francis Joseph McGuire Annie Daly 💍 1883/3237	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Servant	26 25	Christchurch Addington	4 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/3134	23 January 1883	Rev. L. Guinty
32	24 January 1883	Thomas Dudley Caroline Symons	Thomas Dudley Caroline Symons 💍 1883/693	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	35 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 6 months	In the Registrars Office	83/448	24 January 1883	M. Tufferson
33	26 January 1883	John Nadauld Tucker Florence Margaret Roans	John Nadauld Tucker Florence Margaret Evans 💍 1883/482	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Machinist	27 24	St. Albans Christchurch	6 years 14 years	In the Wesleyan Church	83/508	26 January 1883	Rev. I. Aldred
34	29 January 1883	Robert Hanna Mary Hlynes	Robert Hanna Mary Flynn 💍 1883/3252	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 6 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	83/3128	29 January 1883	Revd. L. Guinty

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).