Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 298

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1864

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
731	19 November 1864	George Bedford Fanny Smith	George Bedford Fanny Smith 💍 1864/7863	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	23	Coal hill Christchurch	4 mos 2 years	St. Lukes Church	855	19 November 1864	Rev. H Jacobs
732	2 November 1864	George Mant Miller Clara Jane Fraser	George Mant Miller Eva Jane Fraser Coster 💍 1864/7138	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	29	Christchurch Ohawee Heathcote Dt.	1 month 1 month	Ferry road Church	1088	21 November 1864	Rev. G Cholmondely
733	24 November 1864	Edmund Neale Agnes Verry	Edmund Neale Agnes Kerr 💍 1864/4909	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 24	Ferry road Do	1/2 2	Roman Catholic Chapel	1402	24 November 1864	Rev. Chataigner
734	25 November 1864	Robert Woolley Elizabeth Batty	Robert Somerville Elizabeth Blayney 💍 1864/8180 Robert Pollock Smith Elizabeth Burley 💍 1864/7230	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Servant	30 29	Christchurch Do	2 years 6 mos	Rev. C Frasers house	1051	25 November 1864	Rev. C Fraser
735	26 November 1864	Stephen Budden Elizabeth Hillier	Stephen Budder Elizabeth Hillier 💍 1864/7070	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	40 23	Christchurch Do	4 1	Rev. Habens house	1038	26 November 1864	Rev. J Habens
736	28 November 1864	Henry Silvester Emily Woolnough	Henry Silvester Emily Woolnough 💍 1864/7055	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 21	Prebbleton Lake Ellesmere	4 years 1 year	Rev. C Frasers house	1052	28 November 1864	Rev. C Fraser
737	28 November 1864	Robert Wallace Janet Brown	Robert Wallace Janet Brown 💍 1864/7088	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Dairy maid	27 26	Christchurch Do	11 mos 11 mos	Mr. Wallaces house	1066	28 November 1864	Rev. Grant
738	28 November 1864	John Joyce Roseanna Coates	John Joyce Rosina Coates 💍 1864/7661	Bachelor Spinster	Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages Port Chalmers	25 22	Port Chalmers Christchurch	3 years 3 years	St. Michaels Church		12 December 1864	Rev. H Jacobs
739	28 November 1864	Henry Aker Katchen Seijb	Aker Henry Katharina Seijk 💍 1864/4101	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	28 24	Christchurch Avonside	3 years 3 years	Avonside Church	1098	12 December 1864	Rev. J Bradshaw

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).