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 289

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
669	6 September 1864	Henry Thompson Gourlay Louisa Watkins	Henry Thompson Gourlay Louisa Watkins 💍 1864/7362	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 18	Christchurch Do	20 mos 1 week	St Andrews Church	1035	George Watkins, father	September 6 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
670	7 September 1864	Peter Parry Jane Lauder	Peter Parry Jane Lander 💍 1864/7514	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 26	Christchurch Do	4 years 2 1/2	Mr. Parry's house	969		Sept. 7 1864	Rev. J. Bullen
671	7 September 1864	William Eldred Jane Hills	William Eldred Jane Hills 💍 1864/7628	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	24 25	Christchurch Do	11 mos 11 mos	St Michaels Church	889		Sept. 21 1864	Rev. H. Jacobs
672	8 September 1864	Robert Smith Duan Lydia Elizabeth Fisher	Robert Smith Bunn Lydia Elizth Fisher 💍 1864/6972	Bachelor Spinster	Wesleyan Minister	29 24	Christchurch Do	2 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church	1156		Sept. 8 1864	Rev. J. Crump
673	10 September 1864	Mark Mardon Rickman Sarah Maria Abbott	Frank Murok Rickman Sarah Maria Abbott 💍 1864/4059	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	27 18	Rangiora Papauni	4 years 3 years	Papauni Church	1082	John Abbott Sept. 12, father	Sept. 12 1864	Rev. L. Moore
674	12 September 1864	David Clarke Martha Crank		Widower Spinster	Dentist Housekeeper	50 46	Christchurch Do	7 years 7 years	Mr. Andrews house			Sept. 13 1864
675	13 September 1864	John Morris Sarah Lake	Samuel Morris Sarah Lyle 💍 1864/7788	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 24	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 year	Mr. Watts house			Sept. 13 1864	Rev. J. Buller
676	13 September 1864	William Grain Campbell Jane Morrow	William Grant Campbell Jane Morrow 💍 1864/7368	Widower Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	29 28	Lincoln Christchurch	3 mos 1 week	Rev. Frasers house	1037		Sept. 13 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
677	13 September 1864	Edward Woodford Mary Jane Purdow	Edward Woodsford Mary Jane Purdom 💍 1864/3699	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 17	Do Christchurch	8 mos 8 mos	Mrs. Purdows house	1037	Peter [UNCLEAR] Sept 13, father	Sept. 13 1864	Rev. J. Mathews

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).