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 270

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
509	19 February 1864	Henry Williams Elizabeth Ann Benfield	Henry Williams Elizabeth Ann Benfield 💍 1864/7108	Widower Widow	Labourer Dressmaker	48 36	Paham Do	2 mos 2 Nov	Paham Church	1094		19 February 1864	Rev. L. Moore
510	24 February 1864	William Rodgers Sophia Boulton		Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor Servant	46 22	Lincole Do	6 years 6 mos	Residence Hook	1091		24 February 1864	Rev. H. Hansford
511	24 February 1864	Samuel Hatfield Helena Robinson	Samuel Hatfield Helena Robinson 💍 1864/7099	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	24 20	Heathcote Valley Do	1 week 1 month	Heathcote Valley Church	1091	none	24 February 1864	Rev. G. Cholmondely
512	25 February 1864	Jacob Harrison Sarah Susanna	Jabez Harrison Sarah Susanna Mumford 💍 1864/7446	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 20	Riccarton Do	6 years 3 years	Wesleyan Chapel	946	David Mumford, father	25 February 1864	Rev. J. Buller
513	26 February 1864	Alped Joseph White Eliza Baker	Alfred Joseph White Eliza Baker 💍 1864/7720	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	27 23	Ch Ch Do	3 mos 3 mos	Catholic Chapel	941		11 March 1864	Rev. Chataigner
514	26 February 1864	Edmund Yeaman Mary Eliza Patton	Edmund Searman Leversedge Mary Eliza Patton 💍 1864/7236	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	23 21	Ch Ch Do	3 mos 3 mos	Scotch Church	988		26 February 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
515	26 February 1864	James Stewart Hannah Mawson	James Stewart Hannah Manson 💍 1864/7999 James Stewart Jane Martin 💍 1864/4214 David Stewart Ann Mauson 💍 1864/8002	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 20	Lincoln Rd Woodoats	4 years 1 year	Church	795	Isaac Mawson, father	26 February 1864	Rev. H. Harper
516	26 February 1864	Martin Dunn Delia Donellan	Martin Dunn Delia Joseph Donnellan 💍 1864/7708	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 18	Ch Ch Do	6 days 1 week	Roman Catholic Chapel	917	none	26 February 1864	Rev. Chataigner
517	1 March 1864	Francis Lee Agnes Hewett		Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Dressmaker	27 21	Ch Ch Do	4 mos 6 weeks	St. Michaels Church

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).