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 421

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
409	4 December 1884	Richard Lord Margaret Armstrong	Richard Lord Margaret Armstrong 💍 1884/3493	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	36 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 days	Avonside Church	84/3298		4 December 1884	Rev W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
410	4 December 1884	Richard Poore Annie Marsham	Richard Cooil Kinvig Annie Marsh Dann 💍 1884/3496 Richard Roberts Annie Bamford 💍 1884/486 Richard McBride Annie Moore 💍 1884/1070	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 5 years	Phillipstown Church	84/3365		4 December 1884	Rev J. C. Gilbert
411	5 December 1884	Karl Grieshaber Rosalie Caroline Street	Karl Grieshaber Rosalie Caroline Strien 💍 1884/3851	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	31 24	Christchurch Ashburton	7 years 3 months	House of Otto Carstens, Ashburton	84/3396		5 December 1884	Rev C. H. Maudage, Wesleyan
412	5 December 1884	William John Rae Emily Jane Elizabeth Rushton	William John Rae Emily Jane Elizabeth Rushton 💍 1884/3492	Bachelor Spinster	Purser	31 29	S.S. Coptic Christchurch	1 year	Avonside Church	84/3297		5 December 1884	Rev W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
413	6 December 1884	Teodor Cristodoul Sarah Alice Gaffney	Teodor Cristodon Sarah Alice Gaffney 💍 1884/1561	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman Servant	39 20	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	Registrars Office	84/3345	No person having authority to consent	20 December 1884	J. M. Mackerron, Registrar of Marriages
414	8 December 1884	Henry Benjamin Jones Selina Jane Keighley	Henry Benjamin Jones Selina Jane Keighley 💍 1884/1740	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Machinist	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 21 years	Presbyterian Church, Phillipstown	84/3692	H. Senjinddie	8 December 1884	Rev F. M. Haswell, Presbyterian
415	8 December 1884	John Beechey Amelia Charlotte Schick	John Beechey Amelia Charlotte Sclick 💍 1884/3418	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 21 years	St. Michael's Church	84/3322		8 December 1884	Rev W. Harper, Church of England
416	8 December 1884	John Edward Perry Lenora Helene	John Edward Perry Lenora Hulme 💍 1884/3476	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	House of John William Perry	84/3305		8 December 1884	Rev C. Dallaston, Baptist
417	9 December 1884	Samuel Hill Jessie King	Samuel Hill Jessie King 💍 1884/3500	Bachelor Spinster	Cabdriver Servant	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 2 years	Methodist Chapel, Cambridge Terrace	84/3370		9 December 1884	Rev J. Ward, Methodist

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).