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 432

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
327	15 September 1884	Thomas Ricketts Sarah Weir	Thomas Ricketts Reynolds Sarah Ann Weir 💍 1884/3059	Bachelor Spinster	Messenger Servant	20 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	St. Andrew's Church	84/2345		15 September 1884	Rev. W. Dinwiddie
328	17 September 1884	George Richard Back Helena Fletcher	George Richard Ditfert Eliza Ann Fletcher 💍 1884/3509	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 23	Sydenham Sydenham	5 years 2 years	St. Saviour's Church	84/1354		17 September 1884	Rev. H. B. Cocks
329	22 September 1884	Walter John Hubbard Jane McIlwraith	Walter John Hubbard Jane Cecil Robinson McIlwraith 💍 1884/1735	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent Servant	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 2 months	House of Cecil Robinson, Green Street	84/1688	Cecil Robinson McIlwraith, having authority to consent	22 September 1884	Rev. W. Dinwiddie
330	22 September 1884	Harry Payne Helena Holton	Harry Payne Eliza Simpson Holton 💍 1884/3400	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 28	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 3 years	Registrar's Office	84/3328		22 September 1884	J. M. Walkerson
331	23 September 1884	Charles Denford Sarah McKay	Charles Dunford Sarah McKay 💍 1884/2743	Widower Spinster	Billiard Marker Servant	43 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 3 days	St. Luke's Church	84/1378		23 September 1884	Rev. Z. C. Lingard
332	23 September 1884	George Henry Wean Ruth Kesteven	George Henry Saxton Blandina Ruth Kesteven 💍 1884/3837	Widower Spinster	Sheepfarmer Servant	48 31	Christchurch Akaroa	3 days 3 months	Avonside Church	84/2390		23 September 1884	Rev. W. C. Pascoe
333	23 September 1884	Charles James Marshall Jane Miles	Charles James Marshall Agnes Jane Miln 💍 1884/676	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitors Clerk Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 20 years	Temperance Hotel	84/3125		23 September 1884	Rev. W. West
334	23 September 1884	David Campbell Susannah Parsons	David Campbell Susannah Parsons 💍 1884/2878	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	35 36	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church	84/2633		23 September 1884	Rev. L. Guenity
335	25 September 1884	Henry Collenson Charles Fleming		Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 17 years	Wesleyan Chapel	84/2394		25 September 1884	Rev. G. Bound

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).