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 958

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
96	11 April 1892	Thomas Edward Taylor Elizabeth Best Ellison	Thomas Edward Taylor Elizabeth Best Ellison 💍 1892/1394	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 3 years	Wesleyan Church, East Belt	92/1509	11 April 1892	Rev. Wm. Baith
97	12 April 1892	James William Skelton Henrietta Fielding Seymour	James William Mullon Henrietta Fielding Seymour 💍 1892/1381	Bachelor Spinster	Bootcloser	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	7 days 3 days	Bible Christian Church, South High Street	92/1518	12 April 1892	Rev. J. Orchard
98	12 April 1892	Christopher Osborne Luick Emma Jane Mitchell	Christopher Osborne Quick Emma Jane Mitchell 💍 1892/1467	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	35 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	Registrar's Office	92/1585	12 April 1892	Registrar of Marriages
99	12 April 1892	James Neeve Papprill Edith Emma Papprill	James Neeve Edith Emma Papprill 💍 1892/1431	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 25 years	St. Michael's Church	92/1570	12 April 1892	Rev. W. Harper
100	12 April 1892	Thomas Murray Webber Sarah Jane Webber	Thomas Murray Sarah Jane Webber 💍 1892/1387	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 10 years	All Saints Church, Prebbleton	92/1523	12 April 1892	Rev. W. Knowles
101	13 April 1892	Patrick McCormack Minnie Georgina Burney	Patrick McCormack Minnie Georgina Burney 💍 1892/1409	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	32 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 3 weeks	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	92/1530	13 April 1892	Rev. Father Chesnais
102	13 April 1892	John Ewing Paterson Emily Sophia Cottrell	John Ewing Paterson Emily Sophia Cottrell 💍 1892/1870	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 months	House of Mr. E. L. Wallace, Ferry Road	92/1989	13 April 1892	Rev. T. Elmslie
103	13 April 1892	William Stephenson Harriett Clare	William Stephenson Harriet Clare 💍 1892/1393	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 16 years	House of Mrs. Henry Clare, Sydenham	92/1508	13 April 1892	Rev. J. Saunders

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).