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 253

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1863

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	5 May 1863	Thomas Harkett Anne M Lane	Thomas Heskett Anne McLean 💍 1863/6206	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 22	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	Riccarton Church	18 May 1863	Rev. C. Bowen
2	6 May 1863	William Harwood Alice Marchand	William Hurwood Cone Alice Marchant 💍 1863/6552	Widower Spinster	Labourer Milliner	32 26	Christchurch Do	3 weeks 3 years	Church Creek	6 May 1863	Rev. H. B. Cocks
3	6 May 1863	Horace Hernin Sarah Morn	Horace Vernon Smith Sarah Morne 💍 1863/6291 Horace Taylor Sarah Hood 💍 1863/6354	Bachelor Spinster	Agent Servant	23 20	Riccarton Do	6 months 9 months	Roman Cath Chapel Christchurch	6 May 1863	Rev. Chataigner
4	14 May 1863	John McLocklan Jesse Robb	John MacLachlan Jessie Robb 💍 1863/3456	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Dairymaid	23 22	Christchurch Do	11 months 7 months	Mr Tremewan's house	14 May 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
5	18 May 1863	John Walker Mary Grady	John Stewart Mary Bray 💍 1863/7463 John Mercer Mary Murray 💍 1864/8323 John Halpin Mary Casey 💍 1863/4836 John Burrell Mary Gurney 💍 1863/3601	Widower Widow	Fisherman Servant	50 50	Christchurch Do	6 days 3 months	St Luke's Church Ch Ch	18 May 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
6	19 May 1863	John Gaus Dinon Hannah C. Hurst		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	22 19	Christchurch Do	2 months 2 months	St Michael's Church Christchurch	19 May 1863	Rev. H. Jacobs
7	23 May 1863	Duncan Campbell Annie Graham	Duncan Gordon Campbell Anne Graham 💍 1863/3985	Bachelor Spinster	Gutterman Servant	24 21	Papanui Rd Riccarton	3 weeks 3 weeks	Rev. C. Frazer's house	23 May 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
8	30 May 1863	William Walls Elizabeth Kelly	William Walls Elizabeth Kelly 💍 1863/3988 Thomas Farrell Elizabeth Kelly 💍 1863/7256	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Dressmaker	21 18	Christchurch Do	7 weeks 7 weeks	St Luke's Church Ch Ch	30 May 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
9	2 June 1863	Andrew Miller Sarah McAffray		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	28 21	Do Heathcote Valley	half a year 1 and a half years	Heathcote Church	2 June 1863	Rev. Cholmondeley
10	3 June 1863	Charles H. Tatam Anna Morton	Charles Henry Tatam Anna Mortimer Jennings 💍 1863/6233	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 22	Christchurch Ferry Rd	11 years 5 months	Church	3 June 1863	Rev. Cholmondeley

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).