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 1345

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
44	18 February 1892	James Haydon Mary Ann Riordan	James Haydon Mary Anne Riordan 💍 1892/579	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	House of Wm Mason, Tuam Street Ch Ch	92/566	18 February 1892	Rev W. Bamble, Wesleyan Methodist
45	18 February 1892	Thomas Henry Mann Mary Maude Flyndon Campbell	Thomas Henry Mann Mary Maude Ferguson Campbell 💍 1892/571	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Tailoress	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 12 years	House of E F Campbell, Springfield Road, St Albans	92/583	18 February 1892	Rev R Erwin, Presbyterian
46	19 February 1892	William Henday Catherine Ann Wilson	William Hendry Catherine Ann Milsom 💍 1892/572 William Lewis Catherine Clark Aitken 💍 1892/1700 William Foster Catherine Ada Daley 💍 1893/89	Widower Spinster	Master Mariner	40 40	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 30 years	House of Mr R. Jenney, Fendalton	92/582	19 February 1892	Rev R. Erwin, Presbyterian
47	20 February 1892	Edward Ebbon Charlotte Sheridan	Edward Ebborn Charlotte Sheridan 💍 1892/630	Widower Widow	Carrier	44 44	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 28 years	St Luke's Church	92/598	20 February 1892	John Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England
48	22 February 1892	Albert Ernest Drugee Jane Edmond	Albert Ernest Small Jane Edmond 💍 1892/3805	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 3 years	House of Jas Edmond, Queen St, Sydenham	92/565	22 February 1892	Rev J R Simpson, Presbyterian
49	25 February 1892	Edmund Edwards Priscilla Nott	Edmund Edwards Eunice Drusilla Nott 💍 1892/577	Widower Spinster	Saddler Housekeeper	45 28	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	Methodist Church, Cambridge Terrace	92/580	25 February 1892	Rev W S. Potter, Methodist
50	26 February 1892	William Wharton Mary Jane Cleburne	William Shakerpeason Wharton Mary Jane Cleburn 💍 1892/1864	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 29	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 3 years	House of Mr W H. Wharton, Lichfield St, Ch Ch	92/984	26 February 1892	Rev J R. Stitt, Wesleyan
51	29 February 1892	Thomas John Thornton Louisa Emily Kemp	Thomas John Thornton Louisa Emily Kerr 💍 1892/646	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 5 years	House of Mr H. Eaton, Gloucester Street, Linwood	92/593	29 February 1892	Rev Gordon Webster, 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).