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 341

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jul - Sep

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
916	14 August 1865	John Gebbie Ellen Cryer	John Gebbie Ellen Cryer 💍 1865/7106	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	24 23	Greensland Lyttelton district Waterford, Rakaia	20 yrs 5 yrs	Leeston Church	1022	14 August 1865	Rt Rev the Bishop of Christchurch
917	14 August 1865	David Marks Harriet Stapleton	David Marks Harriet Stapleton 💍 1865/7672	Widower Widow	General Dealer Fruiterer	42 40	Christchurch Do	1 wk 1/2 yr	Synagogue	1220	14 August 1865	Rev - Philliphs
918	17 August 1865	George Wilson Ellen Harrison	George Wilson Ellen Harrison 💍 1865/7633	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 22	Racecourse Templeton	10 yrs 1 yr	Riccarton Church	1207	17 August 1865	Rev G Bowen
919	18 August 1865	Thomas McGarva Annie Lacey	Thomas McGurva Annie Lacey 💍 1865/7507	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Cook	23 22	Pahamin Do	1 yr 1 mos	Mr Thompson house - Pahamin	1101	4 September 1865	Rev G Fraser
920	19 Aug 1865	Thomas Nicholson Catherine Dowran	Thomas Nicholson Catherine Dorran 💍 1865/7495 Peter Nicholson Catherine MacAulay 💍 1866/9958	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 24	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 8 mos	Rev G Fraser House	1159	19 Aug 1865	Rev G Fraser
921	19 August 1865	Conrad Brent Annie Roe	Conrad Brand Annie Roe 💍 1865/7250	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	42 26	River Styx Christchurch	9 yrs 1 yr	St Michaels	1091	19 August 1865	Venb H Jacobs
922	21 Aug 1865	James Jeffrey Margaret Heggerty	James Jeffreys Margaret Heggerty 💍 1865/7603	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Do	2 yrs 2 1/2 yrs	Roman Catholic Chapel	1195	21 Aug 1865	Rev - Chataigner
923	21 August 1865	John Kowley Matilda Susan Williams	John Rowley Matilda Susan Williams 💍 1865/7136	Bachelor Spinster	Plate Worker Servant	26 29	Christchurch Heathcote	7 yrs 3 yrs	Heathcote Valley Church	1032	21 August 1865	Rev G Cholmondely
924	21 August 1865	James Blackmore Mary Hadley	James Blackmore Mary Hadley 💍 1865/7498	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	50 31	Pahamin Christchurch	1 yr 2 yrs	Rev G Frasers House	1158	21 August 1865	Rev G 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).