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 345

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
948	2 October 1865	Frederick Henry Blake Mary Ann Letcher	Frederick H Clarke Mary Ann Letcher 💍 1865/7378	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	21 21	Christchurch Do	2 yrs 2 yrs	Wesleyan Chapel Christchurch	1113		24 October 1865	Rev J Buller
949	2 October 1865	Thomas Barton Esther Tindall	Thomas Barton Esther Tindall 💍 1865/7735	Widower Widow	Contractor	53 45	Christchurch Do	4 mos 1 yr	Registrars Office Christchurch	1241		2 October 1865	A C Barker
950	3 October 1865	Shaw Brasland Eliza Dorsett	Shaw Crosland Eliza Dorsett 💍 1865/7262	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	26 20	Christchurch Do	6 mos 4 yrs	St Michaels Christchurch	1075	William George Dorsett, Father	3 October 1865	Wm H Jacobs
951	4 October 1865	Edward Green Elizabeth Munro	Edward Green Elizabeth Munro 💍 1865/7295	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	27 23	Christchurch Do	6 yrs 2 yrs	St Lukes Church Christchurch	1087		18 October 1865	Rev - Carpenter
952	12 October 1865	John Francis Barlow Selina Christie Goldough	John Francis Barlow Selina Eustace Colclough 💍 1865/7268	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant of Police	25 26	Christchurch Do	16 mos 2 wks	St Michaels Church Christchurch	1077		12 October 1865	Wm H Jacobs
953	12 October 1865	Francis William Smith Mary Ann Winskill	Francis William Anthony Franks Mary Anne Winskill 💍 1865/7639	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Dressmaker	22 18	Christchurch Do	7 yrs 7 yrs	Riccarton Church	1209	George Winskill, Father	30 October 1865	Rev G Bowen
954	14 October 1865	Thomas Hamilton Susanna Jane Want	Thomas Morton Hamilton Susannah Jane Wort 💍 1865/4050	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	24 18	Christchurch Do	6 yrs 2 yrs	[UNCLEAR] Church	[UNCLEAR]		14 October 1865	[UNCLEAR]
955	19 October 1865	William Brot Sarah McDermott	William Cross Sarah McDermont 💍 1865/7805	Bachelor Widow	Sawyer Servant	35 34	Christchurch Do	4 days 4 days	Rev Grants House Christchurch	1265		19 October 1865	Rev - Grant
956	19 October 1865	George Gofton Charlotte Burge	George Gofton Charlotte Burgess 💍 1865/7375	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 31	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	Wesleyan Chapel Christchurch	1112		19 October 1865	Rev J Buller

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).