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 368

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
1054	10 March 1866	Thomas Rodger Elizabeth Sinclair	Thomas Rodger Elizabeth Sinclair 💍 1866/7540	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	28 20	Christchurch Do	15 mos 15 mos	Rev G Frasers House	1089	None	10 March 1866	Rev G Fraser
1055	12 March 1866	Robert Kelly Emma Faiman	Robert Kelly Emma Fairman 💍 1866/7543	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 23	Christchurch Do	4 days 6 mos	Rev G Frasers House	1090		12 March 1866	Rev G Fraser
1056	13 March 1866	David Lamb Margaret Stewart	David Lamb Margaret Stewart 💍 1866/7360	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 18	Halswell Selwyn	18 mos 1 yr	Mr Stewarts House	1229	John Stewart Mar 27 father	13 March 1866	Rev G Fraser
1057	14 March 1866	Thomas Boyer Maria Wallin	Thomas Colyer Maria Wallin 💍 1866/7297	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 23	Riccarton Do	6 days 3 weeks	Riccarton Church	1006		14 March 1866	Rev G Bowen
1058	15 March 1866	Alexander Sextingeon Ellen McLeod		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 24	Christchurch Do	18 mos 2 years	Mr Farlanes House	1091		15 March 1866	Rev G Fraser
1059	16 March 1866	Horace Neeve Martha Watson	Horace Neeve Martha Watson 💍 1866/7948	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	37 28	Kaiapoi Papanui	8 years 1 1/2 year	Wahamai Kaiapoi	1230		16 March 1866	Rev L Moore
1060	17 March 1866	Jeremiah Dinihan Mary Dinihan	Jeremiah Dinneen Mary Dinihan 💍 1866/7399	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Servant	26 24	Addington Do	3 weeks 4 mos	Roman Catholic Church	1041		17 March 1866	Rev C Chataigner
1061	20 March 1866	Benjamin Wooley Dadley Jane Caroline Stagg	Benjamin Woolley Dudley Jane Caroline Stagg 💍 1866/7843	Widower Widow	Clerk in Holy Orders	60 39	Rangiora Christchurch	6 years 4 months	St Michaels Church Rangiora	1194		April 4 1866	Venb H Jacobs
1062	20 March 1866	William Henry Howard Jepe Macintosh	William Henry Howard Jessie Mackintosh 💍 1866/7549	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dairymaid	20 23	Christchurch Do	7 years 18 mos	Rev G Frasers House	1592	Charles Howard Mar 20 father	20 March 1866	Rev G Fraser
1063	21 March 1866	Robert Beathe Jeanette Henderson	Robert Beattie Janet Henderson 💍 1866/7552	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Servant	33 21	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	Rev G Frasers House	1093		March 21 1866	Rev G Fraser

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).