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 366

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
1035	9 February 1866	Edward Johnson Julia Regan	Edward Johnson Julia Regan 💍 1866/7390	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 26	Christchurch Do	9 mos 8 mos	Roman Catholic Chapel	1037		9 February 1866	Rev - Chataign
1036	12 February 1866	William Johnson Julia Ellen Davis	William Johnson Ellen Sullivan 💍 1866/6748	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	25 23	Christchurch Do	2 years 1 week	Avonside Church	1017		12 February 1866	Rev J Bagsh
1037	12 February 1866	Richard Sharp Margaret Moran	Richard Sharp Margaret Moran 💍 1866/7834	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 25	Avonside Christchurch	9 years 4 1/2 years	St Michaels Christchurch	1191		February 1866	None
1038	14 February 1866	William Ambrose Ford Rosetta Jenkins	William Ambrose Ford Rosetta Jenkins 💍 1866/7531	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	21 20	Christchurch Do	15 years 6 years	Rev C Fraser's House Christchurch	1086		14 February 1866	Rev C Fraser
1039	17 February 1866	John Graham Elizabeth McDonald	John Graham Elizabeth McDonald 💍 1866/7534	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Dressmaker	25 28	Christchurch Do	20 mos 2 yrs	Scotch Church Christchurch	1087		17 February 1866	Rev C Fraser
1040	19 February 1866	James Broughead Mary Mitchell	James Craighead Mary Mitchell 💍 1866/7537	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Servant	23 24	Christchurch Prebbletown	3 years 6 years	Scotch Church Christchurch	1088		6 March 1866	Rev C Fraser
1041	20 February 1866	Thomas Law Elizabeth Bowie	Thomas Law Elizabeth Bowie 💍 1866/7333	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 21	Do Christchurch	2 years 4 years	Avonside Church	1018		20 February 1866	Rev C Bagsh
1042	24 February 1866	James Hine Ellen Bradley	James Hine Ellen Bradley 💍 1866/7396 James Bradley Ann Bradley 💍 1867/6265	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	27 21	Christchurch Do	5 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church	1038		24 February 1866	Rev - Chataign
1043	26 February 1866	William Hagley Elizabeth Halcup	William Hagley Elizabeth Hulcup 💍 1866/7837	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 16	Christchurch Lincoln Rd	4 days 14 years	St Michaels Christchurch	1192	George Halcup, father	March 12 1866	Venbl H Jacob
1044	26 February 1866	Charles A Anderson Helen Vayer	Charles Anderson Helen Varyer 💍 1866/7336	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	28 25	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	Avonside Church	1019		26 February 1866	Rev - Bagsh

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).