Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 139

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1892

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
405	21 December 1892	Charles William Henderson Mary Wishart	Charles William Henderson Mary Wishart 💍 1892/3373	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Teacher of Music	26 25	Wellington Christchurch	13 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Earl Belt	92/3559	21 December 1892	Rev. L. M. Isitt, Wesleyan
406	21 December 1892	Robert Cornelius Wells Ann Grace Hansell	Robert Cornelius Wells Ann Grace Stansell 💍 1892/3503	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	33 33	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 2 years	St. Michael's Church	92/3618	21 December 1892	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
407	22 December 1892	Thomas Frederick Deach Amelia Collins	Thomas Frederick Dench Amelia Collins 💍 1892/3372	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	36 30	Christchurch Christchurch	36 years 30 years	Wesleyan Church	92/3558	22 December 1892	Rev. L. M. Isitt, Wesleyan
408	23 December 1892	Samuel John Phillip Roberts Isabella Imwiddie Robertson	Samuel John Phillips Isabella Dinwiddie Robertson 💍 1892/3414	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 1 year	Home of Mr. John Roberts, Eaton Place	92/3550	23 December 1892	Rev. John Orchard, Bible Christian
409	23 December 1892	Henry Jesse Woodard Alice Maud Stokes	Henry Jesse Woodard Alice Maud Stokes 💍 1892/3389	Bachelor Spinster	Clicker	32 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 14 days	Registrar's Office	92/3645	23 December 1892	Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Henry Adams
410	23 December 1892	Frederick Bradley Lucy Sarah Marshall	Fred Bradley Lucy S Marshall 💍 1892/3518	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Colombo Street	92/3610	23 December 1892	Rev. J. M. Simpson, Presbyterian
411	28 December 1892	David Craighead Mary Lamb	David Craighead Mary Lamb 💍 1892/4051	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 26 years	House of Mr. Margaret Lamb, Linwood	92/3979	28 December 1892	Rev. S. T. Shandic, Presbyterian

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).