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 384

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
1165	17 August 1866	Hugh McElroy Susan McConnell	Hugh McElroy Suzan McConvelle 💍 1866/7456	Bachelor Spinster	Manager Servant	27 23	Papanui Papanui	2 years 2 weeks	Roman Catholic Chapel	1061		17 August 1866	Rev - Chataigner
1166	18 August 1866	Thomas Thompson Ann Tebb	Thomas Thompson Ann Tibb 💍 1866/7981	Widower Widow	Carpenter Cook	45 36	Addington Christchurch	5 years 2 years	Mr Thompson's House	1241		1 September 1866	Rev - Hamilton
1167	23 August 1866	George Hannah Edna Bower	George Hannah Edna Bower 💍 1866/7885	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	30 29	Christchurch Do	10 yrs Do	St Michaels	1209		23 August 1866	Very Rev the Dean of Chch
1168	25 August 1866	Thomas Hilliker Emma Pantell	Thomas Hilliker Emma Sawtell 💍 1866/7810	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	26 26	Christchurch Do	2 1/2 yrs 4 days	Independent Chapel	1182		8 September 1866	Rev - Habens
1169	27 August 1866	George Shepherd Margaret Lareh	George Shepherd Margaret Sarah Hullen 💍 1866/7630 George Shepherd Jane Waddell 💍 1867/8905	Widower Spinster	Do Servant	29 21	Do Halswell	5 years 2 years	Rev C Frasers House	1120		27 August 1866	Rev C Fraser
1170	29 August 1866	Frederick Kahens Charlotte Kiffing	Frederick Bahrus Charlotte Rippingale 💍 1866/7309	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Papanui Do	3 years 7 years	Riccarton Church	1010	Edwin Rippingale, father	29 August 1866	Rev C Bowen
1171	1 September 1866	William Manson Susan Hanna	William Manson Susan Hanna 💍 1866/7267	Widower Spinster	Butcher Servant	23 23	Papanui Do	2 years 1 1/2	Wesleyan Chapel	994		1 September 1866	Rev - Buddle
1172	3 September 1866	Arthur Vishley Lavinia Wallace	Arthur Rapley Lavinia Wallace 💍 1866/7927	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 25	Papanui Heathcote	1 week 1 month	St Lukes Church	1223		3 September 1866	Rev - Carpenter
1173	6 September 1866	Arthur Wallen Elizabeth Cowan	Arthur Maller Elizabeth Cowan 💍 1866/7633	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 31	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	Scotch Church	1231		6 September 1866	Rev C 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).