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 287

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 December 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
39	1 October 1863	Thomas James Wood Rose Amelia Godfrey	Thomas James Wood Rose Amelia Godfrey 💍 1863/6266	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Schoolmistress	24 24	Rhodes Bay Lyttelton	11 years 12 years	Trinity Church Lyttelton		24 October 1863	Rev. Familie
40	20 October 1863	Daniel William Fry Caroline Elizabeth Carroll		Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	29 18	Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 year 9 years	House of Mr Carroll Lyttelton	John Carroll, father of bride	1 October 1863	Rev. George J. Cholmondeley
41	20 October 1863	Michial Raymond Connor Elizabeth Jane Warne	Michael Raymond Connor Elizabeth Chaney 💍 1863/6269	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Exeter Shs Winchester Sh.	3 years 12 years	Trinity Church Lyttelton	William Warne, father of bride	Nov 4 1863	Rev. Francis Knowles
42	6 November 1863	James Bunington Rawnsley Elizabeth Rawnsley	James Bennington Elizabeth Rawnsley 💍 1863/5937	Bachelor Spinster	Waterman Dressmaker	21 19	London Sh. do	13 years 19 years	House of Thomas Rayworthy Lyttelton	John Rawnsley, Father	14 November 1863	Rev. Joseph P. Chaffers
43	9 November 1863	Robert Flower Wyman Jane Wyman	Robert Flower Raxworthy Jane Wyman 💍 1863/6396	Bachelor Spinster	Warder Lunatic Asylum	39 19	Lyttelton Christchurch	1 1/2 years 3 days	Christchurch	Rev. C. Fraser, Christch, King, father		Rev. H. F. Gray
44	12 November 1863	George Buckey Elizabeth Nelson	George Beechey Elizabeth Nelson 💍 1863/6275	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 23	Governors Bay Governors Bay	10 years 6 months	St Michael's Church Lyttelton		30 November 1863	Rev. F. Knowles
45	13 November 1863	Joshua Dixon Catherine Lucy Diana		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 18	Oxfords Road Christchurch	2 years 6 months	Holy Trinity Church Lyttelton	Christch, Lucy Diana, mother of bride	30 November 1863	Rev. H. Knowles
46	19 November 1863	James Ashcroft Irinitia Latter	James Ashcroft Martha Circuit Latter 💍 1863/6272	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 30	Lyttelton Lyttelton	3 days 8 years	Trinity Church Lyttelton		19 November 1863	Rev. F. Knowles
47	19 November 1863	William Paul Tubb Emily Bridgman	William Paul Tubb Emily Hedgman 💍 1863/6278	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	32 30	Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 year 1 year	Trinity Church Lyttelton		19 November 1863	Rev. F. Knowles

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).