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 307

District of [unknown] 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
46	20 October 1864	Samuel Palmer Edith Helen Mealon Badcock	Samuel Palmer Edith Helen Meaton Badcock 💍 1864/6921	Bachelor Spinster	Importer	34 17	Lyttelton Lyttelton	5 years 4 days	Trinity Church Lyttelton	1138		November 4	Rev. F. Knowler
47	October 27	William Herbert Sarah Jane Hopkins	William Herbert Sarah Jane Hopkins 💍 1864/6927	Widower Spinster	Schoolmaster	32 24	Christchurch, at present Lyttelton Lyttelton	9 days 1 month	Trinity Church	1140		October 29	Rev. John Crump
48	October 29	Henry Gibb Mary Chell	Henry Gibb Mary Chell 💍 1864/6975	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 21 3/4	Lyttelton Lyttelton	18 months 8 months	The house of the Rev. Mr Crump	1138		October 29	Rev. John Crump
49	November 7	Charles Franklin Todhunter Caroline Dobson	Charles Franklin Todhunter Caroline Dobson 💍 1864/6924	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 19	Sumner Sumner	1 1/2 years 12 years	Trinity Church Lyttelton	1139	Edward Dobson, Father of C.D.	Nov 7	Rev. George Cotterill
50	November 7	Meldusedeck Joel Taylor Eliza Davey Wells	Melchizidek Joel Taylor Eliza Davey Wills 💍 1864/6930	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 17	Lyttelton Lyttelton	about 3 years 15 months	Trinity Church Lyttelton	1141		November 13	Rev. F. Knowles
51	November 16	George Cossar Mary Turkington	George Cassar Mary Turkington 💍 1864/6987	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	22 22	at present Lyttelton Lyttelton	5 days 5 days	Office Lyttelton	1162		November 18	James Townsend
52	November 28	John Marsh Elizabeth Lowe	John Church Elizabeth Lowe 💍 1864/6936	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Labourer	25 22	Lyttelton Lyttelton	7 years 7 years	Friendly Society's Hall Lyttelton	1143		November 30	Rev. F. Knowler
53	December 10	John McMyer Mary Browning	John McMyn Mary Browning 💍 1864/6933	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant of Police	35 27	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 months 6 days	The Holy Trinity Church Lyttelton	1144		Dec 10	Rev. F. Knowles

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).