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 326

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
791	6 February 1865	James Forester Mary Shirling	James Forrester Mary Stirling 💍 1865/7127	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	22 21	Christchurch Do	2 2	St. Johns Ferry Road	1029		6 February 1865	G Cholmondely
792	6 February 1865	Edward Harman Agnes Anna Willis	Edward Harman Agnes Anna Willis 💍 1865/7166	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	29 23	Christchurch Heathcote	12 years 13 years	St. Michaels Church	1042		6 February 1865	Rev. Jas Wilson
793	7 February 1865	Peter Pender Anastasia Maria Nillaca O'Hara	Peter Pender Anastasia Mary O'Hara 💍 1865/7564	Bachelor Spinster	Inspector of Police	37 19	Christchurch Do	2 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	1181	Ann O'Hara mother	7 February 1865	Rev. Chataigner
794	10 February 1865	David McLean Catherine McGrath	David McMillan Catherine McIlwrath 💍 1865/7414	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 29	Lake Ellesmere Riccarton	3 years 3 weeks	Riccarton Church	1120		10 February 1865	Rev. C Fraser
795	10 February 1865	Albert Cuff Ellen Lucy Cole	Albert Cuff Ellen Lucy Cole 💍 1865/7169	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	25 19	Christchurch Do	3 years 2 years	St. Michaels Church	1043	John Walker Cole Father	10 February 1865	Ben H Jacobs
796	11 February 1865	James Herbertson Elizabeth Mary Josephine Oakes	James Herbert Lloyd Elizabeth Mary Josephine Oakes 💍 1865/7567	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Wilderness Christchurch	2 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	1182	Honora Mary Oakes Mother	14 February 1865	Rev. Chataigner
797	11 February 1865	Charles Benjamin Margaret Terguson	Charles Benjamin Margaret Ferguson 💍 1865/7411	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 26	Christchurch Do	1 month 1 week	Mrs Smiths house	1125		11 February 1865	Rev. C Fraser
798	13 February 1865	Charles Freeman Esther Ellis	Charles Feeman Esther Ellis 💍 1865/7289	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Cook	21 22	Avon side Christchurch	6 [UNCLEAR] 5 years	St. Lukes Church	1085	Benj H Guest Father	13 February 1865
799	16 February 1865	William Marsh Mary Ann Moore	William Naish Mary Jane Moore 💍 1865/7678	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Servant	27 23	Christchurch St. Albans	16 [UNCLEAR] 2 years	Parents Residence	1222		March 6 1865	Rev. L. Moore
800	17 February 1865	Ambrose Jackson Jesse Boyd	Ambrose Jackson Jesse Boyd 💍 1865/7714	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer Servant	23 22	Papanui Do	1 week 3 weeks	Registrars Office	1234		Feb. 17 1865	Registrar

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).