Intentions to Marry, 1858

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840370, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 13 2024

Page 144

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1858

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	25 June 1858	Jacob Ford Caroline Mallard	Jacob Ford Caroline Mallan 💍 1858/1583	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	24 30	Kaiapoi Road Pahauui	2 years 1/2 year	Registrar's Office		July 13 1858	Alfred S. Barker
2	1 July 1858	Charles Hawkins Greenstreet Eliza Mackie	Charles Hawkins Greenstreet Eliza Mackie 💍 1858/1738	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	28 16	Avonside Do	6 years 5 years	Avonside Church	Charles Mackie, Father	July 1 1858	Rev. C. Mackie
3	1 July 1858	James Barford Anna Maria Macnamara	James Barford Anna Maria Macnamara 💍 1858/1580	Bachelor Spinster	Domestic Servant	19 22	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 2 weeks	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	No person competent resident in the Colony	July 1 1858	Alfred S. Barker
4	3 July 1858	John Baxter Marianne Kent	John Baxter Mary Ann Kent 💍 1858/1771	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	32 28	Christchurch Do	12 years 2 weeks	Tamhorany Church Christchurch		July 5 1858	Ven O. Mathias
5	10 July 1858	David Pollan Emma Neal	David Pollard Emma Neal 💍 1858/1610	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Timaru Riccarton	8 years 7 years	Rev. C. Frazer House Christchurch	William Neal, Father	July 10 1858	Rev C. Frazer
6	15 July 1858	Nathanael Griffith Maria Bosworth	Nathaniel Griffiths Maria Bosworth 💍 1858/1592	Widower Spinster	Bricklayer	40 36	St Albans Christchurch	7 years 1 1/2 years	Wesleyan Chapel Christchurch		July 15 1858	Rev J. Aldred
7	16 July 1858	Nathanael Griffith Maria Bosworth	Nathaniel Griffiths Maria Bosworth 💍 1858/1592	Widower Spinster	Bricklayer	40 36	St Albans Christchurch	7 years 1 1/2 years	Henry Allchins House Christchurch		July 16 1858	Rev. J. Aldred
8	10 August 1858	Edward Loverett King Elizabeth Berwick	Edward Leverett King Elizabeth Berwick 💍 1858/1696	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic Servant	30 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 days	Temporary Church Christchurch		August 10 1858	Ven O. Mathias
9	24 July 1858	John Campbell Marjorie Ann Williams	John Campbell Aikman Marjory Ann Williams 💍 1858/1613	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman	33 18	Ferry Mead Christchurch	3 years 1 1/2 years	Mrs Williams House Christchurch	Isabella Williams, Mother	July 24 1858	Rev C. Frazer

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).