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 266

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
482	13 January 1864	William Nixon Mary Withers	William Nixon Mary Withers 💍 1864/7541	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer governess	22 22	Hallowell Do	1 year 3 days	St. Andrews Church	978		13 January 1864	Rev. C Fraser
483	14 January 1864	Walter Henry Garratt Mary Jane Sawtell	Walter Henry Garratt Mary Jane Sawtell 💍 1864/7876	Bachelor Spinster	governess dressmaker	21 23	Ch Ch Do	3 years 3 years	St. Michaels	860		19 January 1864	Rev. H Jacobs
484	22 January 1864	Walter Chrysell Sophia Knight	Walter Crysell Sophia Knight 💍 1864/7879	Bachelor Spinster	farmer Servant	26 26	Ch Ch Ferry Road	3 days 3 days	Ch Ch	861		22 January 1864	Rev. H Jacobs
485	22 January 1864	John Edwin March Sarah Emily Chisnall Field	John Edwin March Sarah Emily Chisnall 💍 1864/7553	Bachelor Spinster	clerk	27 18	Ch Ch Do	7 years 10	St. Michaels	878	Sarah Chisnall mother Ch Ch	February 1864	Rev. H. Jacobs
486	23 January 1864	John McLean Agnes Memille	John McLean Caroline McAskie 💍 1864/5027	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	27 22	Ch Ch Do	3 mos 3 mos	Ch of St Andrew	979		23 January 1864	Rev. C Fraser
487	25 January 1864	Colin Campbell Ackman Isabella Williams	Colin Campbell Aikman Isabella Williams 💍 1864/4083 Colin Campbell Eliza Williams 💍 1865/6395	Bachelor Spinster	commission agent -	42 20	Papanui Road Ch Ch	10 days 18 years	Mr Williams' house	980	Isabella Williams mother Ch Ch	25 January 1864	Rev. C Fraser
488	25 January 1864	Henry Curtis Ellen Etchells	Henry Curtis Ellen Etchells 💍 1864/7550	Bachelor Spinster	clerk Servant	28 19	Ch Ch Lincoln Road	4 mos 4 mos	St. Michaels Church	862	none	25 January 1864	Rev. H Jacobs
489	26 January 1864	Henry Walter Thurmott Amelia Ellen Evans	Henry Walter Thurmott Amelia Ellen Evans 💍 1864/7667	Bachelor Spinster	clerk Clerk	24 22	Ch Ch Do	4 days 4 days	Registrars' office	902		26 January 1864	A. C Barker
490	26 January 1864	John Beaumont Mary Anne Hobbs	John Beaumont Mary Ann Hobbs 💍 1864/7096	Bachelor Spinster	Customs -	23 23	Lyttleton Ch Ch	5 mos 5 mos	Heathcote Valley Church	Lyttelton		26 January 1864	Rev. Cholmondely

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).