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 299

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
750	19 December 1864	James Blackler Amy Wilson	James Blackler Amy Wilson 💍 1864/9401	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	22 21	Leeston Do	3 years 1 year	Presbyterian Church	1068		19 December 1864	Rev Geo Wilson
751	19 December 1864	John Stewart Henrietta McKie	John Stewart Henrietta McNie 💍 1864/7094	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	33 33	Christchurch Do	5 years 9 years	Mr McPhersons house	1068		19 December 1864	Rev Grant
752	19 December 1864	William Hambey Susan Jane Kinnis		Widower Spinster	farmer Dress maker	32 29	Ferry-Road Do	1 year 6 weeks	Kaiapoi Church	1030		8 February 1865	Rev. G Cholmondelay
753	20 December 1864	John Laurence Stephens Cecily Louisa Mary Ann Wiseman	John Laurence Stephen Steele Woolloxall Emily Louisa Mary Ann Wiseman 💍 1864/7658	Bachelor Spinster	Actor Actress	25 20	Christchurch Do	1 year 2 mos	St. Michaels Church	899	Mary Ann Wiseman mother	21 December 1864	Rev W.H. Jacobs
754	21 December 1864	Robert George Hewing Mary Ann Murphy	Robert George Fleming Mary Anne Murphy 💍 1864/7655	Bachelor Spinster	farmer Dairy-maid	25 26	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 2 weeks	St Michaels Church	898		21 December 1864	Rev W. H. Jacobs
755	23 December 1864	George William Westph Jane Maria Stephens		Bachelor Spinster	photographer Barmaid	27 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	943		23 December 1864	Rev. Chalaguers
756	23 December 1864	Andrew Duncan Isabella Robertson	Andrew Duncan Isabella Robertson 💍 1864/3922	Bachelor Spinster	seedsman	29 21	Christchurch Do	7 years 1 year	Mr Robertsons house	1069		23 December 1864	Rev. G. Grant
757	24 December 1864	William Newman Martha Deshley	William Parsons Martha Kennedy 💍 1864/3702	Bachelor Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon Dressmaker	26 22	River Styx Avonside	1 year 11 years	Church			26 December 1864	Rev. Bagshaw
758	27 December 1864	Frederick Faber Elizabeth Wigley	Frederick Faber Elizabeth Wyley Jackson 💍 1864/7064	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Dressmaker	35 27	Christchurch Do	5 mos 10	Mr Jacksons house	1055		27 December 1864	Rev. C Fraser

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).