Intentions to Marry, 1888

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840400, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 650

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1888

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
197	22 May 1888	John Kennedy Catherine Campbell	John Kennedy Catherine Campbell 💍 1888/1577	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	88/1475		22 May 1888	Rev. P. Smythe, Roman Catholic
198	22 May 1888	Thomas Somerville Maria Higgins	Thomas Somerville Maria Higgins 💍 1888/1578	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 6 months	Roman Catholic Church	88/1476	Higgins Father	22 May 1888	Rev. P. Smythe, Roman Catholic
199	23 May 1888	Charles Thomas Burgess Jemima Young	Charles Thomas Burgess Jemima Young 💍 1888/1550	Widower Spinster	Draper Milliner	32 31	Leeston Christchurch	1 year 6 weeks	House of Mrs Pellett, Church Rd, Leeston	88/1516		23 May 1888	Rev. C. H. Handage, Wesleyan
200	23 May 1888	Frederic Chinnery Mary Graham Harper	Frederic Chinnery Mary Graham Harper 💍 1888/1586	Bachelor Spinster	Woodcutter	21 17	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 17 years	House of Robert Harper, Lichfield St	88/1461	Harper Father	23 May 1888	Rev. J. Plumtre, Presbyterian
201	26 May 1888	George Hubbard Amy Watts	George Hubbard Amy Watts 💍 1888/1554	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 6 months	Baptist Chapel, Kilmore St	88/1520		26 May 1888	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
202	26 May 1888	William James Smith Elina Walls	William James Smith Eliza Wall 💍 1888/1555 William John Smith Alice Bates 💍 1888/321	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	21 30	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 5 years	Baptist Chapel, Kilmore St	88/1521		26 May 1888	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
203	28 May 1888	David Howant Sarah Hodgson	David Howait Sarah Hodgson 💍 1888/1512	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 3 years	House of George Hodgson	88/1482		28 May 1888	Rev. S. R. Rogers, Presbyterian
204	29 May 1888	John Penny Eliza Jones	John Penny Eliza Jones 💍 1888/1619	Bachelor Widow	Mariner Servant	37 39	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 months	Registrar's Office	88/1569		29 May 1888	Registrar Manager (J. M. Patterson)
205	29 May 1888	Frederick Thomas Roper Lily Froude	Frederick Thomas Roper Lily Froude 💍 1888/1543	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	Wesleyan Chapel, East Belt	88/1485		29 May 1888	Rev. R. W. Scott, Wesleyan
206	30 May 1888	William Ernest Evans Ann Jackson	William Ernest Evans Ann Jackson 💍 1888/1595	Bachelor Spinster	Letter Carrier Bootfitter	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 3 years	St Michael's Church	88/1542		30 May 1888	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England

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).