1865 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840377, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 324

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
772	16 January 1865	Albert West Sededale Margaret Martin	Albert West Sedcole Margaret Martin 💍 1865/7708	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	21 20	Christehurch Ferry Road	1 year 3 weeks	Registrars Office	1232	Margaret Martin, Mother	17 January 1865	Registrar
773	16 January 1865	James Gordon Clark Elizabeth Patterson	James Gordon Clark Elizabeth Patterson 💍 1865/7160	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 21	Christchurch Ferry Road	1 1/2 year 2 years	St. Michaels Church	1040		17 January 1865	Ben H Jacobs
774	16 January 1865	Thomas Pye Mary Ann Allen	Thomas Pye Mary Ann Allen 💍 1865/7642	Widower Widow	Gardener	60 48	Christchurch Do	7 years 14 years	Avonside Church	1210		31 January 1865	Ben H Jacobs
775	17 January 1865	Artemas Candy Eleanor Shore Penny	Artemas Candy Eleanor Strone Penny 💍 1865/7817	Bachelor Spinster	Outfitter	30 27	Christchurch Do	5 years 2 weeks	Mr Dearys House	1269		17 January 1865	Rev. Cranfuik
776	17 January 1865	William Outram Ann Longbottom	William Outwin Ann Longbottom 💍 1865/7711	Bachelor Widow	Malster Servant	29 30	Christchurch Papanui Rd	1 week 4 weeks	Registrars Office	1233		17 January 1865	Registrar
777	21 January 1865	Richard Hinton Susan Harris	Richard Hinton Susan Harris 💍 1865/7283	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	23 20	Christchurch Do	10 years 2 years	St. Lukes Church	1083	Charles Harris, father	21 January 1865	Rev. W. Harpur
778	21 January 1865	Thomas Tweesley Mary Ann [UNCLEAR] Francis	Thomas Tuersley Mary Ann Richardson 💍 1865/7820	Bachelor Spinster	Fishmonger Servant	30 22	Christchurch Do	9 years 1 year	Mr Tweesleys House	1270		21 January 1865	Rev. W. Campbell
779	23 January 1865	William Land Whiting Ann Elizabeth Howarth	William Laird Whitby Ann Elizabeth Plowright 💍 1865/7121	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	29 25	Heathcote Do	3 years 3 years	Heathcote Church	1027		23 January 1865	Rev. G Clemenger
780	23 January 1865	Walter Pearce Mary Ann Jane Rose	Walter Pearce Mary Ann Jane Roe 💍 1865/7286	Widower Spinster	Printer	39 27	Christchurch Do	4 years 1/2 year	St. Lukes Church	1084		23 January 1865	Ben H Jacobs
781	24 January 1865	Christerpher West Agnes Soutar	Christopher West Agnes Souter 💍 1865/7408	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	33 22	Christchurch Do	1 year 2 years	Mr Wests House	1124		25 January 1865	Rev. C Fraser

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

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).