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 281

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
599	1 June 1864	Hyam Marks Elizabeth Barnett	Hyam Marks Elizabeth Barnett 💍 1864/7676	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	26 19	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 8 mos	Registrar's Office	905	Esther [UNCLEAR] mom Mother	June 15 1864	A b Barker
600	2 June 1864	Thomas Molsworth Elizabeth Emily	Thomas Bacon Elizabeth Smith 💍 1864/3721 Thomas Hawthorne Elizabeth Murphy 💍 1864/5277 Thomas Clarkin Elizabeth Gairn 💍 1864/3648	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	30 24	Christ church	8 mos	St Michaels Ch ch	879		June 23 1864	Rev H. Jacobs
601	3 June 1864	Edward Bodda Rodda Harriet		Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	24 20	Fendall Town Heathcote Valley	1 1/2 yr 12 yrs	Rev le Frasers house	1012	[UNCLEAR] Greenwoo Mother	June 4 1864	Rev b Fraser
602	6 June 1864	Joseph Hautriham Anne Harris	Joseph Fantham Annie Harris 💍 1864/7308	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 23	Lincoln Rd Do	10 yrs 1 yr	mr Hobbs house	1013		June 6 1864	Rev b Fraser
603	7 June 1864	Michael Ryan Julia Hogan	Michael Ryan Julia Hogan 💍 1864/7407	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 21	Ch ch Christchurch	7 mos 7 mos	catholic church	933		June 21 1864	Rev - Chataigner
604	8 June 1864	John Glover Martha Martin	John Glover Martha Martin 💍 1864/7311 John Batten Sarah Martin 💍 1864/7239	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 19	Lincoln Rd Do	2 yrs 5 yrs	Rev b Frasers house	1014	Philip Mar Father	June 8 1864	Rev b Fraser
605	9 June 1864	Richard Dunn Sorah Jane Joynt	Richard Dunn Thomas Sarah Jane Joynt 💍 1864/7592	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	25 21	Benmore Christchurch	5 yrs 4 yrs	St Michaels Ch ch	871		June 22 1864	Rev H Jacobs
606	11 June 1864	William Webb Rose Mashelly	William Webb Rose Maskelly 💍 1864/7314	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Trainer Servant	30 21	Riccarton Lincoln Rd	1 1/2 yr 3 mths	Rev b Frasers house	1015		June 11 1864	Rev b Fraser
607	15 June 1864	William Moir Henrietta Rain	William Moir Henrietta Kain 💍 1864/4971	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel-keeper	26 24	Christchurch Do	1 yr 2 yrs	mr W.K. Wilsons house	1060		June 15 1864	Rev 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).