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 297

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
740	3 December 1864	Charles Rawnsley Elizabeth Kavanagh	Charles Rounsby Elizabeth Kavanah 💍 1864/7434 Charles Marsh Elizabeth Cummings 💍 1864/3610	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	Roman Cath. Chapel	942		3 December 1864	Rev. Chataigner
741	5 December 1864	Charles Langstaff Anne Harris	Charles Longstaff Ann Harris 💍 1864/7652	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Servant	38 32	Christchurch Do	1 year 2 years	St. Michaels Church	942		5 December 1864	Rev. W. H. Jacobs
742	5 December 1864	Joseph Augustus Johnston Jane [UNCLEAR] Muster		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner House Servant	25 20	Christchurch Do	3 days 12 weeks	Mr. Johnstone's house	1053	Alexander Johnston, father	5 December 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
743	6 December 1864	Frederick Parritt Mary Anne Doolan	Frederick Pavitt Mary Anne Doolan 💍 1864/7866	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 36	Christchurch Do	1 day 1 year	St. Lukes Church	856		6 December 1864	Rev. H. Torlesse
744	6 December 1864	Thomas Johnston Priscilla [UNCLEAR] Middlemass		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 20	Christchurch Do	14 [UNCLEAR] 5	Mr. John Jones house	1067	William Middlemass, father	6 December 1864	Rev. Grant
745	7 December 1864	William Williams Annie Boyd	William Williams Ann Boyd 💍 1864/7646	Widower Spinster	Farmer	46 31	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	St. Michaels Church	895		7 December 1864	Rev. W. H. Jacobs
746	13 December 1864	James McGill Rose McLeigh	James McGill Rosa McVeigh 💍 1864/4879	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	21 26	Christchurch Do	3 weeks 3 years	Roman Cath. Chapel	1003		13 December 1864	Rev. Chataigner
747	15 December 1864	Robert Belton Margaret Hunter	Robert Pine Betson Margaret Hunter 💍 1864/7061	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 9 [UNCLEAR]	Scotch Church	1054		15 December 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
748	19 December 1864	John Haigh Elizabeth M'Gloyn	John Haigh Eliza Glasgow 💍 1865/7148	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	27 18	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	St. Lukes Church	1036/1065		January 1865	Rev. W. H. Jacobs
749	19 December 1864	Cecil Trassow Ellen Adams	Cecil Transom Isabella Ellen Adam 💍 1865/7079	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Milliner	23 17	Christchurch Do	7 [UNCLEAR] 1 year	St. Lukes Church	1013/1865		January 2 1865	Rev. W. 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).