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 294

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
702	18 October 1864	James Dawson Susan Mangue	James Dawson Susan Morgan 💍 1864/7218	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Do	2 1 1/2	Res. C Harri Home	1046		October 18 1864	Rev. C Fraser
703	18 October 1864	John McGregor Celia Hunt	John McGregor Celia Hunt 💍 1864/7209	Clerk Spinster	Dress-maker	22 21	Christchurch Do	6 6	Christ Church	703		18 October 1864	Rev C Fraser
704	19 October 1864	Charles Worsley Fanny Bottenger	Charles Worsley Fanny Pollinger Fulton 💍 1864/7164	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper	26 20	Christchurch Do	1 week 2 years	Avonside Church	704	Pottinger Fuller, Mother	Nov. 17 1864	Rev. Bayshaw
705	20 October 1864	James Mitchell Curtia Powell	James Mitchell Emilia Powell 💍 1864/7523	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	28 17	Christchurch Feudale town	8 years 2 years	Wesleyan Chapel	992	John Powell, Father	Oct 25 1864	Rev. J Buller
706	21 October 1864	George Michael Jotham Elizabeth Clark	George Michael Topham Elizabeth Clark 💍 1864/7215	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	31 28	Templeton Racecourse Hill	6 years 6 years	New. C. House	706		Oct. 21 1864	Rev. C Fraser
707	22 October 1864	John James Hamilton Crumb Jane Balding		Widower Spinster	Engineer Servant	49 22	Christchurch Do	4 days 18 mos	Registrar's Office	707		Oct 22 1864	G E Barker
708	25 October 1864	George Rice Mary Connel	George Rice Mary Connor 💍 1864/7425	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 35	Heathcote Valley Christchurch	5 years 2 years	Catholic Chapel	708		Oct 25 1864	Rev. Charigners
709	27 October 1864	William Cox Sarah Ann Thomas	William Cox Sarah Annie Thomas 💍 1864/7194	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 22	Feudale town Templeton	12 years 3 years	Avonside Church	1110		Nov. 10 1864	Rev. C Bowen
710	27 October 1864	George Le Rue Catherine McDonald	George McRae Catherine McDonald 💍 1864/7085 Thomas Laurie Catharine McDonald 💍 1864/6421	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Dairy maid	27 22	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 5 days	Mr. Fowler House	710		Oct. 27 1864	Rev. Grant

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).