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 280

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
590	18 May 1864	Samuel Fleming Mary McDonnell	Samuel Fleming Mary Macdonald 💍 1864/7296	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	28 27	Christchurch Do	6 yrs 1 "yr	Rev C Frasers house	1008		18 May 1864	Rev C Fraser
591	18 May 1864	Hamilton Neely Ellen Heron	Hamilton McNeely Ellen Heron 💍 1864/7299	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Shandstrack Springs Track	3 yrs 7 mos	Rev C Frasers house	1009		18 May 1864	Rev C Fraser
592	21 May 1864	Charles Adhin Ellen Green	Charles Adkin Ellen Green 💍 1864/4071	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	40 27	Christchurch Fendal Farm	5 yrs 1 yr	mr J Borstons house	1011		21 May 1864	Rev C Fraser
593	22 May 1864	Thomas McKenzie Charlotte Sounders	Thomas McKenzie Charlotte Sanders 💍 1864/7490	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	36 23	Halswell Do	4 yrs [UNCLEAR]	mr Harrisons house	961		22 May 1864	Rev J Butler
594	26 May 1864	John Parry Anna Fleming	John Parry Hannah Fleming 💍 1864/7589	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Servant	25 26	Christchurch Do	9 mos 6 whs	St Michaels bh ch	870		10 June 1864	Rev H Jacobs
595	27 May 1864	John Smith Maria Round	John Smith Anna Maria Round 💍 1863/3396	Bachelor Spinster	Stone Mason Servant	22 19	Heathcote Valley Do	2 yrs 2 yrs	Roman Cath- olic Chapel	931	Elisha Round Father	28 May 1864	Rev Chataigner
596	27 May 1864	John Goggin Charlotte Hale	John Johnson Charlotte Heatley 💍 1865/6872	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Washerwoman	21 28	Christchurch Do	1 mo 1 yr	Roman Catholic Chapel	950		27 May 1864	Rev Chataign
597	28 May 1864	Charles Brown Turner Charlotte Hale	Charles Brown Turner Charlotte Hale 💍 1864/7302	Bachelor Spinster	Stock - owner	53 25	Christchurch Do	20 yrs 4 mos	Mr C Turners house	1010		28 May 1864	Rev C Fraser
598	31 May 1864	James Bodden Jesse McLean	James Badden Jessie McLean 💍 1864/7073 James Cole Rosetta McLean 💍 1864/4793	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 18	Christchurch Do	4 mos 3 days	Mr Mains house	1059	None	31 May 1864	Rev C 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).