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 284

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
623	12 July 1864	George Oak Jesse Lindsay	George Oak Jessie Lindsay 💍 1864/7326	Widower Spinster	Joiner Servant	39 27	Christchurch Do	9 years 1 year	Rev. C Frasers house	1020		July 1864	Rev. C Fraser
624	12 July 1864	Arthur Lilley Jane Ward	Arthur Lilley Annie Ward 💍 1864/7179	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 22	Christchurch Do	3 mos 13 years	Christchurch Church	1105		July 1864	Rev. C Bowen
625	14 July 1864	Patrick William Foley Margaret Houlihan	Patrick William Foley Margaret Houlihan 💍 1864/7410	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	29 21	Christchurch Do	7 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church	934		July 1864	Rev. Chataigner
626	15 July 1864	David Douglas Agnes Colhart	David Douglas Agnes Collart 💍 1864/7329	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Servant	22 23	Papauni Do	9 mos 9 mos	Rev. C Frasers house	1021		July 1864	Rev. C Fraser
627	16 July 1864	George James Whitehead Mary Ann Clark		Bachelor Spinster	baker	28 22	Do Christchurch	9 or 3 days 13 days	Green Cottage St Albans	962		July 1864	Rev. St Barbe
629	18 July 1864	Henry Edward Keightly Margaret Hirris	Henry Edward Keighley Margaret Hirst 💍 1864/7332	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	26 22	Christchurch Do	3 days 1 year	Scotch Church	1022		July 1864	Rev. C Fraser
630	18 July 1864	Thomas Blay Mary Napley	Thomas Blay Mary Rapley 💍 1864/7155	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman Servant	26 20	Avonside Christchurch	3-1/2 years 2 mos	Avonside Church		William Napley father	Aug 1864	Rev. Dashaw
631	19 July 1864	William Jenner Isabella Jane Mahon	William James Brooker Isabella Jane Mahon 💍 1864/7508	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 2 years	Mr. Brookers house	961		Aug 4 1864	Rev. J Buller
632	18 July 1864	Best Joshua Hamilton Anna Meany Carew	Bent Joshua Hamilton Ball Carew Anna Mary Carew 💍 1864/7616	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	38 26	Loscairne Do	4 days 3 years	St Michaels Church	885		July 18 1864	Rev. H Jacobs

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).