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 464

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
64	28 February 1884	Robert George Badcock Warnes Mary Magdalena Smith	Robert George Warnes Mary Magdalene Smith 💍 1884/2854	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	29 26	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 1 month	Roman Catholic Church	84/1609		28 February 1884	Revd. Geraty
65	28 February 1884	Queanuel Morris Marks Leah Harris		Bachelor Spinster	Agent	33 17	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 17 years	In the Hebrew Synagogue	84/523	Maurice Harris, Father	28 February 1884	Revd. Zachariah
66	29 February 1884	Walter James Badcock Susan Please	Walter James Hunt Susan Pleace 💍 1884/1889	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman	35 48	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In St. John's Church	83/844		29 February 1884	Revd. H. W. Watson
67	1 March 1884	John Marton Frederick Gleeson Rosauna Glearer		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registrars Office	84/484		1 March 1884	J. M. Padderson
68	3 March 1884	Thomas Tyres Lily Lyous		Bachelor Spinster	Engine driver	21 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 18 years	In St. Michael's Church	84/572	Isabella Tyres, Mother	3 March 1884	Revd. W. Harper
69	5 March 1884	Henry Wise Elizabeth Leak	Henry Wise Elizabeth Leak 💍 1884/439	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	42 27	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 9 months	In the Registrars Office	84/489		5 March 1884	J. M. Padderson
70	5 March 1884	Walter Francis Jane Elizabeth Scott	Walter Francis Jane Elizabeth Scott 💍 1884/465	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Saleswoman	21 24	St. Albans Christchurch	2 years 5 years	Methodist Chapel	84/574		5 March 1884	Revd. J. Ward
71	6 March 1884	Thomas Yarr Margaret Miller	Thomas Yarr Margaret Miller 💍 1884/438 Benjamin Bailey Margaret Miller 💍 1884/1155	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Servant	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	In the Registrars Office	84/488		6 March 1884	J. M. Padderson
72	7 March 1884	Edward Hartwell Rebecca Criglington	Edward Hartwell Rebecca Criglington 💍 1884/496	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Servant	24 22	Ashbourne Christchurch	2 years 3 weeks	House of Job Hartwell	84/531		7 March 1884	Revd. W. Pursley

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).