Intentions to Marry, 1863

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840375, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 268

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1863

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
463	17 December 1863	George Craig Sannie Frances Herbert Phillips	George Craig Powrie Frances Herbert Phillips 💍 1864/7532	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	29 28	Christchurch Do	6 mon 6 mon	Rev C Frazer's House, Christchurch	975	17 December 1863	Rev C Frazer
464	22 December 1863	Robert Hamrose Julia Carroll		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	25 19	Windmill Rd Christchurch		St Michaels Christchurch	698	22 December 1863	Rev H Jacobs
465	22 December 1863	John William Jones Annie Scott Lawson	John William Jonas Anna Scott Lawson 💍 1863/6528	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper Servant	38 24	Christchurch Do		St Michaels Christchurch	628	22 December 1863	Rev H Jacobs
466	25 December 1863	Walter Chenden Maria Jane Elizabeth Hatton	Walter Ockenden Maria Jane Elizabeth Hatton 💍 1863/6525	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	26 23	Christchurch Do	6 mon 6 mon	St Michaels Christchurch	627	23 December 1863	Rev C Frazer
467	23 December 1863	Edward Eastwood Mary Patinson	Edward Eastwood Mary Patinson 💍 1863/3486	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Servant	23 21	Christchurch Do	4 years	St Andrews Christchurch	696	23 December 1863	Rev C Frazer
468	24 December 1863	George Haywood Elizabeth Shaw	George Haywood Elizabeth Shaw 💍 1863/6402	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	32 30	Riccarton Do	1 week 3 mon	Scotch Church Christchurch	697	22 December 1863	Rev C Frazer
469	26 December 1863	Robert Ambrase Julia Carroll	Robert Ambrose Julia Carol 💍 1863/6405	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 14	Windmill Rd Do	3 years 1 year	Scotch Church Christchurch	698	26 December 1863	Rev C Frazer

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).