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 295

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
711	31 October 1864	Thomas Fogerty Mary Flynn	Thomas Fogarty Mary Flynn 💍 1864/4903	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 25	Shands Track Christchurch	3 weeks 1 year	Catholic Chapel	1909		31 October 1864	Rev. Chataigner
712	31 October 1864	William Brice Eliza Mary Williams	William Vine Eliza Mary Williams 💍 1864/7860	Widower Widow	Shoemaker Midwife	46 54	Christchurch Do	1 year 4 years	St. Lukes Church	854		31 October 1864	Rev. C.H. Jacobs
713	31 October 1864	William Hagley Jones Elizabeth Wilkins	William Bayley Jones Elizabeth Melesina Tipping 💍 1864/3937	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 24	Christchurch Woodend	10 mos 10 mos	Woodend Church	814		31 October 1864	Rev. Stack
714	1 November 1864	James Little Jane Farrar	James Little Jane Farrar 💍 1864/7526	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	22 23	Christchurch Do	5 weeks 9 yrs	Wesleyan Chapel	973		1 November 1864	Rev. J. Buller
715	3 November 1864	Samuel Wilson Mary Ann Hrean	Samuel Wilson Mary Eliza Heron 💍 1864/7221 James Wilson Mary Anne Smith 💍 1864/8457	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 27	Christchurch Do	6 days 7 mos	Port Church Christchurch	1047		3 November 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
716	3 November 1864	Henry Charles Giger Hester Stafford		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 25	Christchurch Do	1 year 6 weeks	New Church House	1049		3 November 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
717	5 November 1864	Archibald Russell Jane Devley	Archibald Russel Jane Denley 💍 1864/7224	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 26	Christchurch Do	3 years 4 years	Mr. Russells House	1048		5 November 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
718	7 November 1864	Richard Jacklin Mary Carnshaw	Richard Jackman Mary Earnshaw 💍 1864/7132 Richard Mason Mary Murphy 💍 1864/6996	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 19	Papanui Do	6 mos 3 mos	Papanui Church	1085	Thomas Carnshaw, father	21 November 1864	Rev. L. Moore
719	8 November 1864	George Aird Ann Dougherty	George Reid Ann Doherty 💍 1864/7428	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	28 21	Christchurch Do	4 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church	940		8 November 1864	Rev. Chataigner
720	12 November 1864	Thomas William Jones Eliza Ann Jones		Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	27 22	Christchurch Do	1 1/2 years 1 1/2 years	Mr. Jones' house			12 November 1864

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).