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 336

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
877	31 May 1865	Atkinson McDonnell Isabella Playsted	Atkinson McDowall Isabella Playsted 💍 1865/7456	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 20	Christchurch Do	9 mos 2days	Mr McBlatchies house	1142	none	31 May 1865	Rev C Fraser
878	1 June 1865	James Fairmeather Elizabeth Battermole	James Fairweather Elizabeth Cattermole 💍 1865/7690	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	21 21	Papanui Do	3days 10yrs	Papanui Church	1226		June 1 1865	Rev L Moore
879	1 June 1865	John Ebert Kate Wyman	John Ebert Kate Wyman 💍 1865/7462	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	25 19	Christchurch Do	12mnths 3 mos	Rev C Frasers house	1144	Thomas W Wyman father	June 2 1865	Rev C Fraser
880	3 June 1865	Patrick Ryan Bridget Phelan	Patrick Ryan Bridget Phelan 💍 1865/7591	Bachelor Spinster	Gold Miner	30 28	Christchurch Do	1 mth 4 yrs	Roman Catholic Chapel	1191		June 3 1865	Rev - Chataigner
881	5 June 1865	William Thompson Mary Proctor	William Thomson Mary Procter 💍 1865/7465	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 23	Temple Town Windmill Rd	2 years 1 yr	Scotch Church	1145		June 5 1865	Rev C Fraser
882	5 June 1865	Herrman Mahnke Christina Smith	Herman Mahnke Christina Smith 💍 1865/7471	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Servant	29 20	Christchurch Do	3 1/2 year 2 year	Scotch Church	1147	none	June 5 1865	Rev C Fraser
883	7 June 1865	William Patten-Bowles Helen Bapley	William Patten Cowlishaw Helen Bossley 💍 1865/7693 William Payne Helen James 💍 1865/9283	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	25 26	Avonside Merivale	2 yrs 3 mos	Papanui Church	1227		June 7 1865	Rev L Moore
884	9 June 1865	Matthew Longden Sarah Beresford	Matthew Longden Sarah Beresford 💍 1865/7217	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper Domestic Servant	23 20	St Albans Do	1 month 2mos	St Michaels Church	1060	Eliza Fletcher Mother	June 24 1865	Venb H Jacobs
885	12 June 1865	William Ward Ann Dellow	William Ward Ann Dellow 💍 1865/7474	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	22 18	Templeton Christchurch	2 yrs 2 mos	Presbyterian Church	1148	Isaac Dellow Father	June 12 1865	Rev C Fraser
886	15 June 1865	Henry Gillan Margaret Laverty	Henry Gillon Margaret Laverty 💍 1865/7597	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 25	Lower Heathcote Do	4days 14days	Roman Catholic Chapel	1193		June 15 1865	Rev - Chataigner

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).