Intentions to Marry, 1860

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840372, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 045

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1860

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
18	17 February 1860	William Bumby Mary Anne Stokes	William Bunney Heathcote Hornecastle Mary Ann Stokes 💍 1860/3540	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	26 18	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 weeks	The Scotch Church Christchurch		No person resident in the colony	March 6 1860	Rev C. Frazer
19	17 February 1860	George Buckley Alexandrina a McLean	George Buckley Alexandrina McLean 💍 1860/3534	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	31 23	Lyttelton Waimakariri	18 months 5 years	Captn. McLean's House Christchurch			Feb 17 1860	Rev C. Frazer
20	20 February 1860	George Allen Lizzy Westwood	George Allan Lizzie Westwood 💍 1860/2077	Widower Spinster	Farmer	56 32	Christchurch Do	9 years 3 months	St Michaels Christchurch	712		Feb 24 1860	Venble O. Mathias
21	20 February 1860	George Brown Mary Ann Bugg	George Brown Mary Ann Bugg 💍 1860/1867	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Christchurch Do	4 days 4 days	The Scotch Church Christchurch		No person resident in the colony	Feb 20 1860	Rev C. Frazer
22	28 February 1860	John Marshall Fanny Simmons	John Marshall Fanny Simmons 💍 1860/3642	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 23	Christchurch Do	5 years 3 years	St Michaels Christchurch			Feb 28 1860	Venble O. Mathias
23	3 March 1860	James Hammond Young Susan Ford	James Hammond Young Susan Ford 💍 1860/3537	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	36 28	Christchurch Mr Read's Station	2.5 years 1 year	Mr Ford's House on the Waimakariri			Mar 3 1860	Rev C. Frazer
24	9 March 1860	William Neave Mary Elizabeth Baldwin	William Neeve Mary Elizabeth Baldwin 💍 1860/3648	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	29 24	Christchurch Do	3 years 1 year	St Michaels Christchurch			Mar 9 1860	Venble O. Mathias
25	17 March 1860	David Main Elizabeth Gore	David Main Elizabeth Goer 💍 1860/3627	Widower Widow	Dairyman	45 43	In the Pararehamen Run Do	9 years 2 years	Papanui Church			Mar 17 1860	Venble O. Mathias
26	20 March 1860	Albert Parr Parson Cherry Frances Abbott	Albert Parr Parsons Cherry Fanny Abbott 💍 1860/2044	Bachelor Spinster	Captain	30 22	Christchurch Do	1 month 1 month	St Michaels Christchurch			Mar 20 1860	Venble O. Mathias

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).