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 433

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
318	9 September 1884	John Robert Bach Newton & Frances Pettinger		Bachelor Spinster	Dairy Farmer	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 14 years	St. Lukes, Akaroa Church	84/2349		9 September 1884	Rev. R. A. Lingard, Church of England
319	9 September 1884	Frederick William Bach Golding & Maria Louisa Smith	Frederick William Golding Maria Louisa Smith 💍 1884/2748	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 10 years	Registrars Office	84/2360	Jane Smith, mother	9 September 1884	J. M. Parkerson, Registrar of Marriages
320	9 September 1884	Fairfax Frederick Bach Fenwick & Julia Mary Wilkins	Fairfax Frederick Fenwick Julia Mary Wilkins 💍 1884/2737	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Manager	32 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	St. Michaels Church	84/2373	Wilkins, Father	9 September 1884	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
321	10 September 1884	Thomas Thompson Jane Watson	Thomas Thompson Jane Watson 💍 1884/1451 Thomas Crampton Gibbs Mary Watson 💍 1884/797	Widower Widow	Carpenter	69 64	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 10 years	House of Mr. Thompson	84/2392		10 September 1884	Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan
322	10 September 1884	Thomas Hooper Augusta Hay	Thomas Hooper Augusta Hay 💍 1884/1414	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	27 19	Christchurch Richmond	21 years 1 year	House of Mrs. Hay	84/2404	Ellen Hay, mother	10 September 1884	Rev. C. Vallaston, Baptist
323	11 September 1884	Michael Daley Bridget Mc. Yourell	Michael Daley Bridget McDonnell 💍 1884/2877	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	49 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 6 weeks	Roman Catholic Church	84/2632		11 September 1884	Revd. M. Equality, Roman Catholic
324	11 September 1884	Thomas Mortimer Jacob & Jane Davis	Thomas Mortimer Sarah Jane Davis 💍 1884/3082	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	House of Rev. W. Durwardie	84/2444		11 September 1884	Rev. W. Durwardie, Presbyterian
325	13 September 1884	Paul Richard Pope Marie Ticken	Paul Richard Pape Marie Feicher 💍 1884/2849	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 20	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	6 years 12 years	Presbyterian Church	84/2338	Frederick Ticken, Father	13 September 1884	Rev. R. J. Porter, Presbyterian
326	13 September 1884	James Wilson Martha Hosey	James Wilson Martha Hooey 💍 1884/2745 James Wilson Caroline Young 💍 1885/3813	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 29	Christchurch Riccarton	6 days 6 years	House of James Boyd, Bromore	84/2380		13 September 1884	Rev. R. Erwin, Presbyterian

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 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).