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 952

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
139	16 May 1892	John Poppelton Harnack Mary Celia Champion	John Poppelton Herrick Mary Celia Champion 💍 1892/1441	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 26	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	Episcopalian Church	92/1556		16 May 1892	Rev. J. F. Yeatman, Church of England
140	16 May 1892	Alfred Garland Aldred Alice Maude Aldred	Alfred Garland Alice Maude Aldred 💍 1892/1464	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 30	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 14 years	Housed, Springfield Road	92/1582		16 May 1892	Rev. J. Aldred, Wesleyan
141	16 May 1892	Thomas Vickery Elizabeth Jane Yelland	Thomas Vickery Elizabeth Jane Yelland 💍 1892/1457	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 19 years	Registrars Office, Christchurch	92/1597	John Henry Yelland, Father	16 May 1892	Registrar Marriages, J. M. Paullenson
142	16 May 1892	John McCordie Martha Wild	John McConchie Martha Wild 💍 1892/1459	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	34 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 19 years	Registrars Office	92/1598		16 May 1892	Registrar Marriages, J. M. Macpherson
143	16 May 1892	Arthur John Marshall Hannah Beeman	Arthur John Marshall Hannah Denman 💍 1892/1403	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Machinist	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 22 years	House of [illegible] Beeman	92/1542		16 May 1892	Rev. R. C. Gelndear, Church of Christ
144	16 May 1892	Peter Dewar Baag Jane Anderson	Peter Dewar Boag Jane Anderson 💍 1892/1405	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 24 years	House of Wm. H. Anderson, Clydes Road	92/1544		16 May 1892	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
145	17 May 1892	George Bolt Barbara Smith	George Bolt Barbara Smith 💍 1892/1398 George Cosson Barbara Smith 💍 1892/1915 George Butler Ada Sarah Smith 💍 1892/1495	Widower Widow	Gardener	42 43	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 10 years	House of Rev. W. Baumber, St. Albans	92/1529		17 May 1892	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan
146	17 May 1892	John Barrett Mary Baretta	John Barrett Mary Baretta 💍 1892/1439	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	35 20	Christchurch Christchurch	30 years 12 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes St. Chch	92/1577	Frederick Baretta, Father	17 May 1892	Rev. Walter Cummings, Roman Catholic

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).