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 249

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1863

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
315	4 March 1863	Edward James Tatem Charlotte Smith	Edward James Pateman Charlotte Smith 💍 1863/6708	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	31 39	Christchurch Do	4 days 6 months	St. Michael Church		4 March 1863	Rev. H. B. Cocks
316	5 March 1863	John Sheppard Sarah Green	John Shepherd Sarah Green 💍 1863/6585	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 19	Papanui Christchurch	3 weeks 6 weeks	Roman Catholic Church	Martha M. C. Daley, mother	5 March 1863	Rev. Chataigner
317	14 March 1863	Frederick Lane Jane Holiday	Frederic Lane Jane Holliday 💍 1863/6711	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	24 22	Christchurch Do	1 year 11 months	St. Michaels Church		14 March 1863	Rev. H. B. Cocks
318	14 March 1863	Thomas Lee Arabella Thompson	Thomas Lee Isabella Thompson 💍 1863/4015	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	31 24	Christchurch Do	4 years 3 years	Rev. C. Frazer's house		16 March 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
319	16 March 1863	Henry Tester Louisa Halstead	Henry Tester Louisa Halstead 💍 1863/4036	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Needlewoman	29 29	Christchurch Avonside	6 months 2 years	Avonside Church		16 March 1863	Rev. H. B. Cocks
320	20 March 1863	Joseph Rawlings Louisa Thurier	Joseph Rawlings Fussell Louisa Kiver 💍 1863/6456	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	26 19	Christchurch Do	5 years 10 years	St. Michaels Christchurch	Charles Thurier, father	24 March 1863	Rev. H. B. Cocks
321	21 March 1863	William Heslop Ruth Griffiths	William Hislop Ruth Griffiths 💍 1863/6420 William Rose Martha Griffiths 💍 1863/6423	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 22	Windmill Rd Lincoln Rd	1 year 12 years	Mr. Griffiths house		4 April 1863	Rev. J. Buller
322	21 March 1863	William Rose Martha Griffiths	William Rose Martha Griffiths 💍 1863/6423 William Hislop Ruth Griffiths 💍 1863/6420	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 24	Hoon Hay Lincoln Rd	9 years 12 years	Mr. Griffiths house		4 April 1863	Rev. J. Buller
323	23 March 1863	William G. Judge Julia Ann Daley	William George Judge Julia Ann Daley 💍 1863/3414	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	25 20	Papanui Christchurch	2 1/2 months 1	Papanui Church		23 March 1863	Rev. Moore
324	24 March 1863	Thomas Spark Brown Ann Downing Hill	Thomas Spark Brown Anne Browning Hill 💍 1863/6200	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 18	Christchurch Levonhead	6 years 5 years	Riccarton Church	Joseph Hill, father	8 April 1863	Rev. C. Bowen

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).