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 261

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
16	16 September 1863	John Towden Amelia Beare	John Snowden Amelia Beare 💍 1863/6498	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	28 27	Heathcote Valley Do	2 years 14 days	St Michaels Church Christchurch	617	16 September 1863	Rev. H. Jacobs
16	16 September 1863	James Main Ann Joanna Hunt	James Main Ann Joanna Hunt 💍 1863/6375	Widower Widow	Storekeeper	53 29	Papanui Road Mr Main's house Papanui Rd	2 years 6 months	Christchurch	689	16 September 1863	Rev. C. Frazer
16	16 September 1863	Richard Clark Frances Groves	Richard Clark Frances Groves 💍 1863/6182	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	24 27	St Albans Springfield	9 months 9 months	Papanui Church	739	16 September 1863	Rev. L. Moore
17	10 September 1863	Antonio Zuppicich Mary Ann Cleaver	Antonio Zuppicich Mary Ann Cleaver 💍 1863/6158	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 21	Papanui Do	1 week 3 days	Registrars Office Christchurch	730	17 September 1863	The Registrar
19	11 September 1863	John Thomas Morris Mary Ann Elden	John Thomas Morris Mary Ann Elder 💍 1863/6161	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	36 35	Christchurch Do	4 days 5 months	Registrars Office Christchurch	731	19 September 1863	The Registrar
21	12 September 1863	James Missen Edith Payrs	James Missen Edith Elizabeth Eayes 💍 1863/6212	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Needlewoman	29 21	Christchurch Do	8 months 9 months	Riccarton Church	750	21 September 1863	Rev. C. Bowen
23	12 September 1863	Henry Edgar Johnson Annie Gentleman	Henry Edgar Johnson Simonson Annie Gentleman 💍 1863/6570	Widower Spinster	Shipwright Servant	28 21	Christchurch Do	3 days 8 weeks	St Lukes Church Christchurch	642	23 September 1863	Rev. C. Pearson
24	14 September 1863	John Morris Sarah Lake	John Carroll Sarah Lane 💍 1863/7681	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 23	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	St Michaels Church Christchurch		24 September 1863	Rev. L. Moore
24	14 September 1863	James Briscoe Jane Grant	James Brisco Jane Grant 💍 1863/6185	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 22	Papanui Do	1 year 4 years	Papanui Church	740	08 October 1863	Rev. L. Moore
26	14 September 1863	Richard Broderick Kate Welsh	Richard Broderick Catherine Welsh 💍 1863/6312	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 20	Christchurch Do	3 months 9 months	Roman Catholic Chapel	663	26 September 1863	Rev. Chataigner

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).