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 254

District of Christchurch Quarter ending [unknown]

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
361	6 June 1863	James Doak Eleanor Ada[UNCLEAR]	James Doak Eleanor Daily 💍 1863/3501	Bachelor [UNCLEAR]	labourer Needlewoman	32 28	Christehurch Do	1mo 5mo	[UNCLEAR] Church		6 June 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
362	8 June 1863	Richard Stringer Ann Dobson	Richard Stringer Anne Dobson 💍 1863/3991	Bachelor Spinster	labourer	26 23	Christchurch	4 years 4mo	Mr Stringers house		9 June 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
363	12 June 1863	Elijah Croucher Eliza Cauty	Elijah Hayes Croucher Elizabeth Canty 💍 1863/6149	Widower Widow	Mariner	31 31	Heathecote Do	[UNCLEAR] 9mos	Registrar office			Registrar
364	12 June 1863	James Penfold Fanny Thacked	James Penfold Fanny Shackel 💍 1863/6432	Bachelor Spinster	mariner dress	31 28	Heathecote Do	5mos 3mos	Wesleyan Chapel		12 June 1863	Rev. Buller
365	13 June 1863	John Campbell Mary Sharpe	John Campbell Mary Sharpe 💍 1863/6441	Bachelor Spinster	groom nurse	26 27	Christchurch Ilam	1 1	Wesleyan Chapel		[UNCLEAR]	Rev. [UNCLEAR] Buller
366	15 June 1863	John Francis Mary Dobson	John Francis Julius Haast Mary Dobson 💍 1863/6224	[UNCLEAR] Spinster	Government Geologist	38 19	Christchurch Sumner	3 years 11 years	Valley Church Lyttleton	E. Dobson, father	17 June 1863	Rev. G. Cotteril
367	19 June 1863	William Couper Margaret White	William Greig Margaret White 💍 1863/4745	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener fervant	26 24	Christchurch Do	1 1/2 1	M.W. Whites house		19 June 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
368	20 June 1863	George Robert Hart Jane Hunt	George Robert Hart Jane Hunt 💍 1863/3964	Bachelor Spinster	printer dressmaf	24 21	Christchurch Do	12 1 1/2	Mr Hunts house		20 June 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
369	22 June 1863	James Hoban Bridget Healy	James Hoban Bridget Healey 💍 1863/6294	Bachelor Widow	labourer Washerwoman	27 25	Christchurch Do	6 mos 2 years	Cattic Chapel

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).