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 224

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
49	10 October 1860	Samuel Newbury Bailey Sarah Cook	Samuel Newberry Bailey Sarah Cook 💍 1860/3344	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	25 17	Christchurch Do	3 years 1 year	St Michaels Christchurch		October 10 1860	Rev C. Alabaster
50	10 October 1860	Charles Edward Oswald Sarah Elizabeth Wilkins	Charles Edward Oswald Sarah Elizabeth Wilkins 💍 1860/3609	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	39 39	Christchurch Do	7 months 1 year	Avonside Church		October 23 1860	Rev C. Alabaster
51	20 October 1860	Thomas Aldwin Sarah Ann Worman	Thomas Aldwin Sarah Ann Worman 💍 1860/2068	Bachelor Widow	Brickmaker	41 45	Ferry Road Heathcote	2 years 2 years	The Scotch Church		October 20 1860	Rev C. Fraser
52	2 November 1860	Henry Porcher Lance Mary Bradshaw	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	29 19	Christchurch Riccarton	1 year 2 years	Riccarton Church		2 November 1860	Rev C. Bowen
53	9 November 1860	Antill Alfred Adley Sarah East	Antill Alfred Adley Sarah East 💍 1860/2059	Bachelor Widow	Storekeeper Lodging house Keeper	32 38	Kaiapoi Christchurch	1 year 3 years	St Michaels Christchurch		November 9 1860	Rev C. Alabaster
54	10 November 1860	John Hopack Jane Warden	John Hossack Jane Warden 💍 1860/3588	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Domestic Servant	31 22	Christchurch Do	5 years 3 years	St Andrews Church Christchurch		November 10 1860	Rev C. Fraser
55	12 November 1860	William Robinson Susan Ann Stewart	William Robinson Susan Ann Stewart 💍 1860/3591	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Milliner	30 20	Kaiapoi Christchurch	8 months 1 year	Mrs Stewarts House Christchurch		November 24 1860	Rev C. Fraser
56	16 November 1860	Richard Mitten Emily Fisk	Richard Whitlow Emily Fisk 💍 1860/1846	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Housekeeper	27 24	Fendaletown Hagley Lodge	5 days 1 year	St Andrews Church Christchurch		November 16 1860	Rev C. Fraser
57	27 November 1860	Robert O'Riordan Elizabeth Bennett	Robert O Riordan Elizabeth Bennett 💍 1860/3624	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	39 19	Papanni Do	1 week 3 months	Papanui Church	Margaret Bennett, mother	November 29 1860	J. [UNCLEAR] Wilson, Officiating Minister of Christchurch

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).