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 268

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
491	26 January 1864	Thomas Greig Mary Howalt	Thomas Greig Mary Howat 💍 1864/3771	Bachelor Spinster	carpenter servant	22 23	Chch Do	1 year 1 week	Mr Greig's house	964		26 January 1864	C Praser
492	27 January 1864	Frederick John Hill Charlotte Maria Franks	Frederick John Hill Charlotte Maria Sparks 💍 1864/7682	Widower Spinster	joiner cook	39 27	Chch Do	6 years 4 years	Mr Hills house	967		10 February 1864	Rev. Dolmoree
493	27 January 1864	William Hayward Jane Beer	William Hayward Jane Beer 💍 1864/7685	Bachelor Spinster	labourer servant	39 23	Heathcote Valley Chch	3 years 1 year	Mr Johnsons house	908/908		19 February 1864	Rev. Dolmoree
494	28 January 1864	John Johnston Christina [UNCLEAR]type	John Johnston Christina McIntyre 💍 1864/7547	Bachelor Spinster	blacksmith servant	28 27	Chch Do	3 days 6 mos	St Andrews Church	951		1 February 1864	Rev. E France
495	28 January 1864	Patrick Owen Margarte Shea	Patrick Dunn Margaret Shea 💍 1864/7699	Bachelor Spinster	labourer servant	22 21	Chch Do	3 weeks 6 mos	Roman Cath. Chapel	974		2 February 1864	Rev. Chataigner
496	30 January 1864	David Stewart Ann Mawson	David Stewart Ann Mauson 💍 1864/8002 James Stewart Hannah Manson 💍 1864/7999	Bachelor Spinster	ploughman	24 18	Moordrakes Do	6 mos 1 year	Chch	994	Isaac Mawson father	30 January 1864	Rev. H. Harper
497	30 January 1864	John Boufield Gestrude Esselborn	John Borgfeldt Gertrude Esselborn 💍 1864/7670	Bachelor Spinster	farmer servant	28 22	Papanui St. Albans	4 years 3 mos	Registrars office	903		31 January 1864	A. C. Barker
498	30 January 1864	William Allan Frances Annie Wrighter	William Allan Francis Annie Wrightson 💍 1864/7440	Bachelor Spinster	shepherd servant	28 20	Chch Do	3 days 2 weeks	Mrs Twaits House	944	none	30 January 1864	Fred. J. Aldred
499	1 February 1864	Stephen Hefter Sarah Jandey	Stephen Hooper Sarah Tandey 💍 1864/7839	Bachelor Widow	hairdresser	28 23	Chch	2 1/2 years 1 year	St. Lukes Church	846		1 February 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).