Intentions to Marry, 1884

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840396, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 467

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1884

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
37	1 February 1884	John Charles Broughton Clara Houghton Whittaker	John Charles Broughton Clara Houghton 💍 1884/463	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	19 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 19 years	In the House, Cambridge Terrace	84/515	Agnes Houghton, Mother	1 February 1884	Rev. J. Ward, Methodist
38	2 February 1884	Frederick Kettenburg Louisa Horne	Frederick Kettenburg Louisa Horne 💍 1884/454	Bachelor Spinster	Horsebreaker	24 17	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 14 days	In the Registrars Office	84/481	James Horne, Father	2 February 1884	J. M. Ollivier, Registrar of Marriages
39	4 February 1884	William Townshend Ada Seager	William Townshend Ada Seager 💍 1884/481	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Teacher	35 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	In St. Michaels Church	84/509		4 February 1884	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
40	4 February 1884	Elizabeth Anne Booth Charles Myrtle Brooke		Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	22 26	Christchurch Kaiapoi	14 days 7 months	In the Church, Kaiapoi	84/467		4 February 1884	Rev. H. Vere White, Church of England
41	4 February 1884	Patrick Sherridan Charlotte Thomas	Patrick Sheridan Charlotte Thomas 💍 1884/2853	Widower Widow	Farmer Nurse	40 35	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church	84/2608		4 February 1884	Rev. L. Guiaty, Roman Catholic
42	7 February 1884	George Cogston Jane Worsfold	George Ogston Jane Worsford 💍 1884/482	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Servant	36 28	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 1 year	In St. Michaels Church	84/510		7 February 1884	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
43	8 February 1884	Augustus Palmer Elizabeth Wise	Augustus Lahmert Elizabeth Wise 💍 1884/477	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	45 33	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 months	In the House, Amuri	84/528	John Osborne	8 February 1884	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
44	8 February 1884	William Hyland Elizabeth Cox	William Hyland Elizabeth Cox 💍 1884/456	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Tailoress	22 18	Sydenham Sydenham	3 years 9 months	In the Registrars Office	84/483	Margaret Hyland, Mother	8 February 1884	J. M. Ollivier, Registrar of Marriages
45	8 February 1884	Thomas McMenemy Sarah Jackson	Thomas McAneney Sarah Jackson 💍 1884/457 Thomas Proude Kate Jackson 💍 1884/74	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Milliner	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 10 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	84/511		8 February 1884	Rev. L. Guiaty, Roman Catholic

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).