Intentions to Marry, 1866

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840378, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 364

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
1016	12 January 1866	James O'Hara Margaret O'Donnell	James O'Hara Margaret O'Connell 💍 1866/10215	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	25 22	Christchurch Do	9 yrs 3 yrs	Roman Catholic Church Christchurch	2024		12 January 1866	Rev - Chataign
1017	13 January 1866	Henry Wallis Helen Elizabeth Taylor	Henry Wallis Helen Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1866/7828	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitors Clerk	23 17	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 3 yrs	St Michaels Church Christchurch	1188	Elizabeth Sengar, mother	27 January 1866	Ven H Jacobs
1018	17 January 1866	Richard Ewans Mary Ann Allen	Richard Ewans Mary Ann Allan 💍 1866/7798	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	25 22	St Albans Papanui Rd	7 yrs 2 yrs	Congregation Chapel Christchurch	478		17 January 1866	Rev - Habens
1019	17 January 1866	Richard Lumbard Ann Stace	Richard Lumbard Ann Stace 💍 1866/7369	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 25	Ferry Road Do	7 yrs 10 yrs	Ferry Road Church	1030		31 March 1866	Rev J Cholmondely
1020	19 January 1866	Amos Pferratt Mary Ann Eskett	Amos Sherratt Mary Anne Eskett 💍 1866/7972	Widower Spinster	Salesman Servant	33 37	Christchurch Do	4 mos 1 wk	Cathedral Square Christchurch	1238		19 January 1866	Rev J Thornton
1021	19 January 1866	Benjamin Wood Catherine Harrold	Benjamin Wood Catherine Harrold 💍 1866/7522	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 25	Christchurch Do	2 yrs 3 yrs	Scotch Church Christchurch	1083		3 February 1866	Rev - Fraser
1022	20 January 1866	Francis Smith Mary Bryan	Francis Smith Mary Brydom 💍 1866/7516	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	35 25	Leeston Riccarton	1 year 1 week	Scotch Church Christchurch	1081		20 January 1866	Rev - Fraser
1023	25 January 1866	Gilbert Hutcheson Maria Rouse	Gilbert Hutcheson Maria Rouse 💍 1866/7519	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	26 21	Christchurch Do	1 week 3 mos	White Hart Hotel Christchurch	1082		25 January 1866	Rev - Fraser
1024	27 January 1866	George Michael Gettward Catherine Bennett	George Michael Gebhardt Catharine Bennett 💍 1866/7825	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	37 24	Racecourse Hill Christchurch	6 mos 1/2 year	St Michaels Christchurch	1189		27 January 1866	Ven H Jacobs
1025	30 January 1866	John Luine Sarah Jones	John Quine Sarah Jones 💍 1866/7351	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 18	Christchurch Do	6 years 2 years	Rev J Buller's House Christchurch	1424	Edward Jones, father	5 February 1866	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).