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 428

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
351	9 October 1884	Henry Lewis Hopkey Florence Hall Ross	Henry Lewis Stapley Florence Hall Ross 💍 1884/681	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Engineer	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 6 months	St. Johns Church, Christchurch	84/3448		9 October 1884	Rev. H. E. Watson
352	9 October 1884	James Adolphus Ludbrook Elizabeth Lamont	James Adolphus Ludbrook Elizabeth Lamont 💍 1884/3483	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Engineer	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 1 week	St. Julies Church, Christchurch	84/3311		9 October 1884	Rev. J. C. Engaud
353	13 October 1884	George Henry Jaxton Blandine Ruth Restoven		Widower Spinster	Sheepfarmer	48 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Johns Church, Christchurch	84/3390		13 October 1884	Rev. H. E. Watson
354	13 October 1884	Frederick Randall Deansford Annie Janettice Osborn	Frederick Randall Dunsford Annie Jane Mee Osborne 💍 1884/3491	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 22	Christchurch Avonside	8 years 22 years	Church, Avonside	84/3296		13 October 1884	Rev. W. A. Pascoe
355	15 October 1884	Alfred Rose Americall Amelia Marshall	Alfred Rose Amelia Marshall 💍 1884/3818	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	29 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 19 years	Methodist Chapel, Cambridge Terrace	84/3369	Thomas Marshall, Father	15 October 1884	Rev. J. Ward
356	15 October 1884	James Whitley Perrow Isabella Carter	James Whitley Isabella Perrow Carter 💍 1884/3512	Widower Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 9 years	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	84/3360		15 October 1884	Rev. J. Best
357	16 October 1884	Richards Harriet Wattions		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	34 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 year	Registrars Office	84/3329		16 October 1884	Registrar Marriages J. M. Patterson
358	20 October 1884	Henry Carter Rose Elizabeth Moore	Henry Carter Rose Elizabeth Moore 💍 1884/3403	Bachelor Spinster	Watch Maker	28 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	84/3331		20 October 1884	Registrar Marriages J. M. Patterson

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).