Intentions to Marry, 1859

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840371, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 12 2024

Page 175

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1859

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	19 December 1859	Richard Walls Isabella Ward	Richard Wallis Isabella Bird 💍 1859/1902	Bachelor Spinster	Millwright Seamstress	29 21	Lower Heathcote Papanui	2 years 2 years	Papanui Church		19 December 1859	Rev. I. Aldea
2	19 December 1859	John Murray Frances Meper	John Mummery Frances Messer 💍 1859/1905	Widower Spinster	Millar Domestic	43 30	Christchurch	1 year 1 year	House of Mr King		19 December 1859	Rev. I. Aldea
3	20 December 1859	William Make Jane Rider	William Blake Jane Rider 💍 1859/1253	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Domestic	28 22	Riccarton Papanui	3 days 3 weeks	Papanui Church		20 December 1859	Rev. Mr. Elmsly
4	22 December 1859	George Bell Annie Henderson	George Dell Annie Henderson 💍 1859/1908	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Domestic Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 6 months	Scotch Church, Christchurch		22 December 1859	Rev. C. Fragen
5	28 December 1859	William Gourlay Mary Russell	William Gourlay Mary Russel 💍 1860/3520	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Nurse	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	Scotch Church, Christchurch		16 January 1860	Rev. C. Fragen
6	28 December 1859	James Banks Mary Ann Cook	James Brightwell Banks Mary Ann Cook 💍 1860/3511	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	House of Mr. Cook, Christchurch		28 December 1859	Rev. C. Fragen
7	31 December 1859	John Barton Acland Emily Weddell Harper	John Barton Arun Acland Emily Weddell Harper 💍 1860/2047	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	36 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	St. Michaels, Christchurch		16 January 1860	Rev. The Bishop of Christchurch
8	31 December 1859	Charles Veray Coy Sarah Thetford Harper	Charles Percy Cox Sarah Shephard Harper 💍 1860/3636	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	24 19	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 3 years	St. Michael's, Christchurch	Henry John Chitty, Christchurch	16 January 1860	Rev. The Bishop of Christchurch
9	31 December 1859	Thomas Going Catherine Downey	Thomas Going Catherine Downey 💍 1860/3514	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 26	South Road Lower Heathcote	4 years 4 years	Scotch Church, Christchurch

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).