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 159 B

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1860

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
41	10 September 1860	Thomas Carlile Sarah Jane Love	Thomas Carlile Sarah Jane Lovatt 💍 1860/3576	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Domestic Servant	32 23	Christchurch Do	4 months 6 months	Mr Hills House Christchurch		11 September 1860	Rev C. Fraser
42	13 September 1860	James Ward Matilda Alley	James Ward Matilda Alley 💍 1860/2091	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Christchurch Do	3 weeks 3 weeks	St Michaels Christchurch	No resident in the colony
43	14 September 1860	James Hair Mary Lockharts Graham	James Hair Mary Lockahrt Graham 💍 1860/3582	Bachelor Spinster	Wharfinger	52 32	Ferry Road Do	1 year 1 year	Rev C. Frasers House Christchurch		14 September 1860	Rev C. Fraser
44	15 September 1860	Joseph Wicks Ann Asney Moore	Joseph Wicks Ann Amy Moore 💍 1860/1818	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	30 19	Christchurch Do	5 years 10 years	St Michaels Christchurch	John Moore Father	15 September 1860	Rev C. Alabaster
45	19 September 1860	George Robert Hart Jane Piper	"See letter attached" [There is a faint pencil note to the effect that the certificate was not issued]	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	21 21	Christchurch Do	10 years 2 years	St Michaels Christchurch	See letter attached	19 September 1860	Rev C. Alabaster
46	24 September 1860	Ephraim Jeffs Lucy King	Ephraim Jeffs Lucy King 💍 1860/3308	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	31 31	Heathcote District Do	2 years 10 months	St Michaels Christchurch		24 September 1860	Rev C. Alabaster
47	24 September 1860	Andrew Finnie Margaret Webster	Andrew Finnie Margaret Webster 💍 1860/3585	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	28 25	Christchurch Do	3 days 2 years	St Andrews Church Christchurch		24 September 1860	Rev C. Fraser
48	26 September 1860	William Beardmore Sarah Ann Grimes	William Beardsmore Sarah Ann Grimes 💍 1860/3341	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	6 months 6 months	St Michaels Christchurch		26 September 1860	Rev C. Alabaster

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).