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 388

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
1198	10 October 1866	Thomas Randall Jemima Bell Lang	Thomas Randall Jemima Bell Lang 💍 1866/7237	Bachelor Widow	Sailor	37 23	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	983		10 October 1866	the Registrar
1199	12 October 1866	James Boyd Catherine McIntyre	James Boyd Catherine McIntyre 💍 1866/7723	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 27	Christchurch Papanui Rd	3 days 2 weeks	Rev Glynant's House	1153		12 October 1866	Rev Glynant
1200	12 October 1866	Daniel Sutherland Margaret Anderson	Daniel Sutherland Margaret Anderson 💍 1866/7726	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	30 21	Christchurch Do	3 years 1 year	ch ch	1154		12 October 1866	Rev J Grant
1201	12 October 1866	John Howell Amelia Bender	John Howell Amelia Bender 💍 1866/7276	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Milliner	21 23	Christchurch Do	1 week 3 mos	Wesleyan Church	997		12 October 1866	Rev - Buddle
1202	15 October 1866	Peter Denescovech Sarah Buckett	Peter Devescovick Sarah Buckett 💍 1866/7669	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	29 19	Christchurch Do	18 mos 18 mos	Peter Denescovech's House	1134	Henry Buckett, father	20 November 1866	Rev C Fear
1203	17 October 1866	Henry Asher Davis Sarah Aarandiyan	Henry Asher Davis Sarah Andjar Romain 💍 1866/4222	Bachelor Spinster	General Dealer	29 27	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 days	Jewish Synagogue	985		Oct 17
1204	17 October 1866	William Vogson Borrow Emma Lunn	William Pogson Emma Lunn 💍 1866/7315	Bachelor Spinster		27 22	Riccarton Do	6 weeks 3 yrs	Riccarton	1012		17 October 1866	Rev C Bowen
1205	17 October 1866	Stephen Simpson Sarah Greaves	Stephen Simpson Sarah Greaves 💍 1866/7987	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 29	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 3 days	Mr Thompson's House	1244		Oct 17
1206	18 October 1866	Thomas Griffiths Sarah Richards	Thomas Griffiths Sarah Richards 💍 1866/7903	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	34 28	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 3 yrs	St Michaels	1215		Oct 18	Very Rev the Dean

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).