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 225

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	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
58	27 November 1860	Thomas Papprill Elizabeth Thirt	Thomas Papprill Elizabeth Flint 💍 1860/3350	Bachelor Spinster	Writing Clerk	20 21	Christchurch St Albans	6 years 2 years	St Michaels, Christchurch		13 December 1860	Rev. C. Alabaster
59	29 November 1860	Richard Barnett Annie Somers	Richard Bennett Ann Somers 💍 1860/3356	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 23	Christchurch do	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		29 November 1860	Rev. Seon
60	4 December 1860	William Alexander Amelia Rutledge	William Alexander Amelia Roultidgo 💍 1860/2071	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Christchurch Do	18 months 3 days	Mr. Connollys House, Christchurch		24 December 1860	Rev. J. Buller
61	11 December 1860	Thomas Yates Sarah Ann Urry	Thomas Yates Sarah Ann Urry 💍 1860/3347	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	30 24	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	St Michaels, Christchurch		11 December 1860	Rev. C. Alabaster
62	15 December 1860	William Campbell Sarah Ann Perry	William Campbell Sarah Anne Berry 💍 1860/1925 William Campbell Sarah Anne Berry 💍 1860/3594	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	27 18	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 2 years	St Andrews, Christchurch		15 December 1860	Rev. C. Fraser
63	17 December 1860	William Kelly Ellen Jackson	William Kelly Ellen Jackson 💍 1860/3358	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 24	Lower Lincoln Rd Do	1 week 2 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		17 December 1860	Rev. Seon
64	17 December 1860	Charles Griffith Elizabeth Shreeve	Charles Griffiths Elizabeth Shreeve 💍 1861/3515	Widower Spinster	Miner	36 42	Prebble Town [UNCLEAR]	6 months 1 month	The Scotch Church	461
65	18 December 1860	Daniel Pye Emma Fulley	Daniel Pye Emma Tulley 💍 1861/3451	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner Cook	24 29	Christchurch Do	5 years 2 years	Mr. John Fulley, House, Christchurch		1 January 1861	Rev. J. Buller
66	21 December 1860	Thomas Taylor Eliza Griffith	Thomas Taylor Eliza Griffiths 💍 1861/3518	Widower Spinster	Farmer	26 16	Prebble Town Do	3 years 9 months	Mr. Taylors House, Prebble Town		9 January 1861	Rev. C. Fraser
67	24 December 1860	Belfield Woolcombe Frances Ann Fendall	Belfield Woollcombe Frances Anne Fendall 💍 1861/3563	Bachelor Spinster	Resident Magistrate	44 32	Heathcote Valley Do	5 days 9 months	Heathcote Valley Church		24 December 1861	Rev. C. Bowen
68	24 December 1860	Thomas Griffith Rowley Jane Hodgson	Thomas Griffith Rowley Jane Hodgson 💍 1860/3382	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	22 24	Christchurch Do	2 years 4 years	Registrars Office, Christchurch		24 December 1861	Alfred R. [UNCLEAR]

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).