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 381

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
1138	2 July 1866	Earl Philip Merry Catherine Elizabeth Ellenberger	Carl Philip Meng Catherine Elizabeth Ellenberger 💍 1866/7303	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 26	Christchurch Riccarton	3 days 3 years	Viccarton	1008		2 July 1866	Rev. C Bowen
1139	3 July 1866	John Terras Bell Emma White	John Terras Bell Emma Whyte 💍 1866/7618	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Saleswoman	27 28	Christchurch Do	2 1/2 2	St Andrews Christchurch	1116		July 18 1866	Rev C Fraser
1140	7 July 1866	Nathaniel Wolfe Emma Flint	Nathaniel Wolfe Emma Flint 💍 1866/7879	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer	26 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 6 years	St Michaels Christchurch	1207		July 21 1866	Very Rev the Dean of Christchurch
1141	9 July 1866	Daniel Burns Julia Brennan	Daniel Burns Julia Bieman 💍 1866/7612	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 19	Christchurch Do	3 weeks 3 weeks	Rev C Frasers House	1114	None	July 9 1866	Rev C Fraser
1142	9 July 1866	Alexander McKay Mary Gray	Alexander McKay Mary Gray 💍 1866/7615	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	25 25	Christchurch Do	1 year 3 weeks	Rev C Frasers House	1115		July 9 1866	Rev C Fraser
1143	10 July 1866	Joseph Munnings Emma Brown	Joseph Munnings Emma Brown 💍 1866/7768	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	25 24	Christchurch Do	5 years 2 years	St Johns Christchurch	1168		July 24 1866	Rev J O'B Hoare
1144	12 July 1866	Robert Thompson Mary Phain	Robert Thompson Mary Phair 💍 1866/10230	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 22	Lincoln Rd Do	7 mos 7 mos	Halsvell Christchurch	1178		July 12 1866	Rev H Torlesse
1145	16 July 1866	John Sinclair Agnes Blake	John Sinclair Agnes Blake 💍 1866/7711	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	29 30	Heathcote Valley St Lincoln Rd Christchurch	3 years 2 weeks	Town Hall	1148		July 16 1866	Rev - Grant
1146	16 July 1866	George Brown Sidney Mary Martin	George Bowron Sidney Mary Martin 💍 1866/7924	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	28 28	Christchurch Do	4 days 8 years	St Lukes Christchurch	1222		July 30 1866	Rev - Catherin

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).