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 365

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
1026	30 January 1866	Archibald McLeod Mary Matheson	Archibald McLeod Mary Mathieson 💍 1866/7225	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	28 21	Christchurch Riccarton	10 days 1 1/2 yrs	Registrar's Office Christchurch	999		January 1866	Registrar
1027	5 February 1866	John Frederick Ferdinand Augustus Thiel Amelia Rosevear Roden	John Ferdinand Angus Kiel Amelia Roserear Roden Hodgkins 💍 1866/7756	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	28 17	Christchurch Do	2 years 8 weeks	St. John's Church Latimer Square	1164	None	February 1866	Rev J Hoare
1028	6 February 1866	Robert Frederick Hodgkins Gordon Sarah Ann Balmer	Robert Frederick Gordon Sarah Ann Balmer 💍 1866/7528	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	8 mos 2 yrs	Mr Burries' House Christchurch	1085		February 1866	Rev G Fraser
1029	6 February 1866	William McCullough Dorman Ann Jane Fullerton	William McCulloch Dorman Anne Jane Fullerton 💍 1866/7525	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 24	Christchurch Do	2 mos 2 yrs	Mr Burries' House Christchurch	1084		February 1866	Rev G Fraser
1030	7 February 1866	William Sidney Greenland Mary Ann Rankin	William Sidney Greenland Mary Ann Rankin 💍 1866/7945	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper [UNCLEAR]	27 26	St Albans Do	2 weeks 3 years	Kaiapoi Church	1229		February 1866	Rev L Moore
1031	7 February 1866	John Henry Lunn Mary Elizabeth Beck	John Henry Lunn Mary Elizabeth Beck 💍 1866/7294	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 22	Christchurch Racecourse	1 year 1 month	Riccarton Church	1005		Feb 1866	Rev G Bowen
1032	7 February 1866	Vincenzo Benti Margaret Bruce	Vincenzo Berti Margaret Bruce 💍 1866/7831	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	24 20	Do Christchurch	3 years 2 1/2 years	St Michael's Christchurch	1169	None	Feb 1866	Ven H Jacobs
1033	8 February 1866	John Henry Margaret Anderson	John Henry Margaret Anderson 💍 1866/7387 John Orr Marion Jane Anderson 💍 1866/6208	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	25 25	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	1036		Feb 8 1866	Rev Chataigner
1034	8 February 1866	Walter Brain Annie Petticgrove	Walter Brain Annie Pettigrove Howes 💍 1866/4360	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 21	Pt Albans Do	2 mos 2 mos	St Michaels Christchurch	1190		Feb 8 1866	Ven H Jacobs

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).