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 264

District of Christehurch 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
434	16 October 1863	John Grant Afse Struthers	John Grant Jessie Struthers 💍 1863/6381	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	25 23	Prebbletown Christchurch	1 1/2 year 1 month	Rev C. Frazer's House	689		16 October 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
435	26 October 1863	Richard Smalley Sarah Jane Howard	Richard Smalley Sarah Jane Howard 💍 1863/6510	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Dressmaker	25 22	Christchurch Do	2 months 2 months	St Michaels Christchurch	621		9 November 1863	Rev. Henry Jacobs
436	27 October 1863	William Sellars Mary Jane Jassy	William Sellars Mary Jane Harrop 💍 1863/6119	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	26 25	St Albans Do	1 year 1 month	Wesleyan Church	716		14 November 1863	Rev. C. Buller
437	28 October 1863	John Henry Freudenthal Cecilia Maria Payne	John Henry Frendenthal Cecilia Maria Payne 💍 1863/6390	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 17	Papanui Ch. Ch	4 years 2 years	Mr Freudenthal's House	692	Maria Ann Payne, mother	28 October 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
438	28 October 1863	Patrick M'Feague Bridget Burley	Patrick McTeague Bridget Curley 💍 1863/6318 Patrick Gilmore Bridget Malley 💍 1863/6285	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 25	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	Catholic Chapel	665		28 October 1863	Rev. Chatigny
439	29 October 1863	Eugene George Mary Ann Williams	Eugene George Prudence Mary Ann Williams 💍 1863/6188	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 20	Papanui Do	1 month 1 month	Papanui Church		Eliza Mary Williams, mother	30 October 1863	Rev. L. Moor
440	2 November 1863	John Barnett Gertrude Sanry	John Bennett Gertrude Laury 💍 1863/6450	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	19 18	Lake Ellesmere Lincoln Road	11 years 1 year	Wesleyan Chapel	741	Jacob Barnett & Walter Sanry, Fathers	7 November 1863	Rev. J. Buller
441	2 November 1865	Joshua Piscon Lucy Sinno		Bachelor Spinster	Boatman Servant	25 18	Lyttelton Christchurch	2 years 3 years	St Michaels Christchurch	713	Catherine Pierce, Mother	16 November 1863	Rev. H. Jacobs

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).