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 260

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
405	1 September 1863	Joseph Harrop Hopkins Louisa Parsons	Joseph Harrop Hopkins Louisa Parsons 💍 1863/6360	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 8 months	W Hawkers house	682		1 September 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
406	3 September 1863	John Bagnall Hobson Sarah Unwin	John Bagnall Hobson Sarah Unwin 💍 1863/6567	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	19 19	Christchurch Christchurch	1 1/2 1 1/2	St. Lukes Church	641	Samuel Unwin, father	3 September 1863	Rev. H. Jacobs
407	5 September 1863	John Howard Eliza Leatherdale	John Howard Eliza Leatherdale 💍 1863/6363	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer Servant	50 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 3 years	Rev. C. Frazers house	683		5 September 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
408	8 September 1863	William Evans Charlotte Pleasant Newton	William Evans Charlotte Pleasant Newton 💍 1863/6155	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 7 years	St Lukes Church	729		8 September 1863	Rev. H. Jacobs
409	10 September 1863	Ezra Ingle Georgiana Robertson	Ezra Ingle Georgina Robertson 💍 1863/6444	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 6 mos	Mr John Hali's house	711		10 September 1863	Rev. J. Buller
410	11 September 1863	Robert McMechan Eliza Jane Wethers	Robert McMechan Eliza Jane Wethers 💍 1863/6369	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 week	Rev. C. Frazers house	685		11 September 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
411	12 September 1863	Alfred Jarman Kate Callan	Alfred Jarman Kate Callen 💍 1863/6309	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman Dressmaker	28 19	Middle Heathcote Middle Heathcote	2 mos 1 week	Catholic Chapel	662	Mary Callan, mother	12 September 1863	Rev. Chataigne
412	12 September 1863	George Cameron Ellen Card Day	George Cameron Ellen Card Day 💍 1863/6372	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	34 20	Lincoln Road Christchurch	6 weeks 4 days	Rev. C. Frazers house	686	George Day, father	12 September 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
413	14 September 1863	Michael McKew Ann Rednigton	Michael McKew Ann Reddington 💍 1863/6306	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 22	Heathcote Valley Heathcote Valley	1 year 2 mos	Roman Catholic Chapel	661		14 September 1863	Rev. Chataigne
414	14 September 1863	William Evans Charlotte Pleasant Newton	William Evans Charlotte Pleasant Newton 💍 1863/6155	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 7 years	Registrars Office	729		14 September 1863	The Registrar

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).