Intentions to Marry, 1861

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840373, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 11 2024

Page 237

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1861

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
142	28 October 1861	James Ford Ann Cuffon	James Ford Ann Cubbon 💍 1861/3499	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	28 21	Christchurch St Albans	3 years 7 years	Mr Fees House, Christchurch	28 October 1861	Rev-Vicker
143	28 October 1861	Ludowick Helsten Mary Ann Campbell	Ludwig Holsten Mary Ann Campbell 💍 1861/3554	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Domestic	29 26	do Christchurch	4 days 2 years	Mr Fuchs house, Christchurch	28 October 1861	Rev C. Frazer
144	28 October 1861	Robert Williamson Susan Thomas	Robert Williamson Susan Thomas 💍 1861/3557	Bachelor Widow	Mariner Housekeeper	45 34	Christchurch do	4 years 5 days	House of Rev Frazer	9 November 1861	Rev C. Frazer
145	9 November 1861	Thomas Bygrave Trew Frances Taylor	Thomas Bygrave Frew Frances Taylor 💍 1861/3428	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 30	Lyttelton Christchurch	1 year 4 days	St Michaels	9 November 1861
146	16 November 1861	James Malcolm Mary Ann Healey	James Malcolmson Mary Ann Grealy 💍 1861/3560	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Servant	25 18	Christchurch St Albans	1 week 1 week	Mr Chaneys House, St Albans	16 November 1861	Rev C. Frazer
147	23 November 1861	George Hall Harriet Attewell	George Hall Harriette Attewell 💍 1861/3431	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer Domestic Servant	28 23	Christchurch do	9 days 1 month	St Michaels, Christchurch	23 November 1861	Rev Cholmondeley
148	23 November 1861	James Shaw Mary Thompson	James Shaw Mary Thompson 💍 1861/3434	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	31 20	Christchurch do	18 months 2 months	St Michaels, Christchurch	23 November 1861	Rev Cholmondeley
149	26 November 1861	Edward James Brew Emma Ellis	Edward James Pardue Emma Ellis 💍 1861/3469	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	Lower Lincoln do	5 years 2 years	Church	26 November 1861	Rev C. Bowen
150	6 December 1861	Leonard Rooke Emma Duffel		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	28 19	Racecourse Hill Papanui	11 years 11 years	Papanui Church	20 January 1862	Rev C. Mackie
151	14 December 1861	John Hughes Luke Jane Margaret Glanville	John Hughes Luke Jane Margaret Glanville 💍 1861/3239	Bachelor Spinster	Horsehoer Domestic Servant	27 28	Paredale Nook Christchurch	2 years 2 years	St Lukes, Christchurch	14 December 1861	Rev Cholmondeley
152	16 December 1861	George Samuel Hitch Mary Amelia Lawrance	George Samuel Ffitch Mary Amelia Lawrence 💍 1862/3892	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Heathcote District do	10 years 9 months	St Michaels, Christchurch	31 December 1861	Rev Matthews

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).