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 331

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
830	4 April 1865	Robert Janes Miranda Fletcher	Robert Jones Miranda Fletcher 💍 1865/7193	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Servant	27 19	Christchurch Do	2 months 2 months	St Michaels	1051	John Fletcher, father	April 17 1865	Venerable H Jacobs
831	April 3 1865	Ehstaina Painter Georgiana Barton		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 19	Templeton Do	2 yrs 11 months	Wesleyan Chapel	1101	Eliza Grannwood, mother	April 19 1865	Rev J Buller
832	April 4 1865	George Ward Jeanette Cunningham	Geo Ward Janet Cummingham 💍 1865/7420	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	20 22	Prebbleton Do	7 yrs 2 months	Revl Frasers house	1129	John Ward, father	April 17 1865	Rev C Fraser
833	April 5 1865	Andrew Arkle Matilda Garlick	Andrew Arkle Matilda Garlick 💍 1865/7328	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 22	Do Windmill Rd	2 months 1 month	Wesleyan Chapel	1098		April 19 1865	Rev J Buller
834	April 6 1865	Edmund Horcraps Martha Millan	Edmund Norcross Corser Martha Willan 💍 1865/7681	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	31 29	St Albans Do	6 months 1 month	Papanui Church	1223		April 6 1865	Rev L Moore
835	April 6 1865	Josiah Long Jane Hands	Josiah Long Jane Hands 💍 1865/7729	Widower Widow	Builder Dressmaker	43 38	Pohanui Rd Christchurch	4 mos 15 mos	Registrars Office	1239		April 6 1865	Registrar
836	April 11 1865	John Lambert Flora Smith	Isaac Lambert Flora Smith 💍 1865/7133 John Walker Sophia Smith 💍 1865/6551	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Servant	38 32	Christchurch Do	7 yrs 3 yrs	Henry Road Church	1031		April 26 1865	Rev G Cholmondeley
837	April 15 1865	Edward Humm Maria Houison	Edward Humm Maria Harrison 💍 1865/7331	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	21 19	Templeton Do	6 yrs 4 yrs	Wesleyan Chapel	1299	William Hawison, father	April 15 1865	Rev Jas Buller
838	April 15 1865	Robert Kennedy Ann Coughlan	Robert Kennedy Ann Coughlin 💍 1865/7582	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	24 23	Christchurch Do	3 mos 1 month	Catholic Chapel	1187		April 15 1865	Rev Chantagnies

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).