1862 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840374, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 264

District of [UNCLEAR] Quarter ending [UNCLEAR] of [UNCLEAR] 186[UNCLEAR]

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
224	18 July 1862	John Charles Athinson Sarah White	John Charles Atkinson Sarah White 💍 1862/3853	Bachelor Widow	Storeman Laundress	26 50	Christchurch do	4 years 4 years	Mr Athinson's House			18 July 1862	Rev. J Buller
225	18 July 1862	James Fiddes Elizabeth Gabbitis	James Fiddes Elizabeth Gabbatis 💍 1862/3822	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	34 22	Ferry Road Christchurch	8 months 15 months	Ferry Rd Church			18 July 1862	Rev. [UNCLEAR] Brown
226	20 July 1862	Henry Fox Helen Finlayson	Henry Fox Ellen Finlayson 💍 1862/3746	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Cook	40 37	Christchurch Do	5 months 3 days	Scotch Church Christchurch			20 July 1862	Rev. C. Fraser
227	23 July 1862	John Milner Kate Troy	John Milner Kate Troy 💍 1862/3686	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker Domestic	23 20	Papanui Rd Windmill Rd	6 months 10 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch			24 July 1862	Rev. Chataigner
228	24 July 1862	William Hillier Sussanna Doell	William Hillier Susannah Doell 💍 1862/3754	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable Domestic	22 19	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	Scotch Church Christchurch			24 July 1862	Rev. C. Fraser
229	26 July 1862	Christopher Sambourne Margaret Plunket	Christopher Swinbourne Margaret Plunket 💍 1862/3642	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer Dressmaker	28 18	Christchurch Do	10 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	217	John Plunkett, Father	26 July 1862	Rev. Chataigner
230	26 July 1862	Harry Lee Maria Hinves	Harry Lee Maria Hinves 💍 1862/3749	Widower Widow	Mariner Domestic	44 30	Moreday's Station Do	14 months 14 months	Royal Oak Christchurch			26 July 1862	Rev. B. W. Dudley
231	28 July 1862	Jeremiah Dale Mary Powell	Jeremiah Dale Mary Powell 💍 1862/3801	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman Domestic	28 25	Homebrook station do station	18 months 2 years	Homebrook station	214
232	28 July 1862	Theodore Arthur Walsh Griffith Grace Ramsay	Theodore Arthur Walsh Griffith Grace Ramsay 💍 1862/3752	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	22 22	Mr Porter's station Christchurch	5 months 4 years	Mrs Ramsay's House Christchurch			28 July 1862	Rev. C. Fraser

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).