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 348

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
976	20 November 1865	John Smith Elizabeth Eleanor [UNCLEAR]	John Smith Elizabeth Eleanor Calvert 💍 1865/7387	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	38 21	Easdale Nook Christchurch	6 yrs 6 yrs	[UNCLEAR] & Culverts House	1116		20 November 1865	Rev. J. Buller
977	23 November 1865	Robert Geddis Jane barter	Robert Geddis Jane Carter 💍 1865/7546	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Servant	21 19	Christchurch Riccarton	2 yrs 3 yrs	Scotch Church	1175	John barter, father	23 November 1865	Rev. [UNCLEAR] & Fraser
978	24 November 1865	Charles Smith Emma Johnson	Charles Smith Emma Johnson 💍 1865/7390 Charles Deck Sarah Johnson 💍 1865/7916	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener [UNCLEAR]	23 25	Christchurch Do	18 mos 18 mos	Rev J. Buller's House	1117		24 November 1865	Rev. J. Buller
979	24 November 1865	Walter Ray Marian Elizabeth Bucke	Walter Ray Marian Elizabeth Burke 💍 1865/6515	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 22	Christchurch Do	9 mos [UNCLEAR] yrs	St. Michaels Church	1081		24 November 1865	Venble H. Jacobs
980	24 November 1865	Weymouth Roberts Jane Blakely	Weymouth Roberts Jane Blakeley 💍 1865/7277	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 26	Christchurch Do	[UNCLEAR] yrs 3 yrs	St Michaels	1080		24 November 1865	Venble H. Jacobs
981	29 November 1865	James Alexander Young Mary Stack	James Alexander Young Mary Stack 💍 1865/7618	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	28 24	Christchurch Do	1 month 11 days	Roman Catholic Chapel	1200		29 November 1865	Rev. Chataigner
982	30 November 1865	Thomas Voyce Ellen Woodham	Thomas Voyce Ellen Woodhams 💍 1865/7139	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	25 19	Heathcote Do	6 mos 6 mos	Heathcote Church	1023	Henry Woodham, father	30 November 1865	Rev. J. Cholmondely
983	1 December 1865	William Trenchard Edith Magdalen [UNCLEAR]	William Trenchard Edith Magdalene Sparrow Laraman 💍 1865/7280	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitors Clerk	25 19	Addington Windmill Rd	2 mos 2 yrs	St Michaels	1082	Anne Laraman, mother	14 December 1865	Venble H. Jacobs
984	2 December 1865	William Andrews Elizabeth Shelton	William Andrews Elizabeth Skelton 💍 1865/7307	Widower Spinster	Upholsterer Servant	31 21	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 1 yr	St. Lukes	1091		22 December 1865	Rev. Carpenter
985	5 December 1865	Albert Charles [UNCLEAR] Susan Thomas	Albert Charles Truscott Susan Thomas 💍 1865/7393	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 27	Bealey Track Templeton	2 yrs 2 yrs	Wesleyan Chapel	1118		5 December 1865	Rev. J. Buller

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).