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 390

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
1216	25 October 1866	William Gordon Jacobs Jofie Seymour	William Gordon Jacobs Jessie Seymour 💍 1866/7240	Widower Widow	Carpenter	33 28	Christchurch Do	7 mos 9 yrs	Registrar's Office ChCh	984		25 October 1866	Registrar
1217	26 October 1866	James Bains Elizabeth Bundy	James Cairns Elizabeth Gundy 💍 1866/7279 James Reid Elizabeth MacKay 💍 1866/5650 James Bright Elizabeth Holland 💍 1866/5842 James Roulston Elizabeth Hunter 💍 1866/5035 James Johnson Elizabeth Howard 💍 1866/6730 James Harvey Elizabeth Hopper 💍 1866/9706 James Stevenson Elizabeth Dow 💍 1866/9895	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Christchurch Do	4 days 4 days	Mr John Ottey's House	498		26 October 1866	Rev J Budd
1218	29 October 1866	Thomas Durrant Mary Hellyer	Thomas Durrant Mary Hellyer 💍 1866/7813	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner	26 25	Christchurch Do	7 days 3 mos	Mr Hillicker's House	1183		29 October 1866	Rev - Habens
1219	31 October 1866	Henry Asher Davis Sarah Andyan	Henry Asher Davis Sarah Andjar Romain 💍 1866/4222	Bachelor Spinster	General Dealer	29 27	Christchurch Do	3 yrs 16 days	Registrar's Office	985		31 October 1866	Registrar
1220	31 October 1866	Neil M Thee Romain Mary Brady	Neil McPhee Mary Crady 💍 1866/7732	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	23 22	Christchurch Do	3 days 16 days	Scotch Church	1156		31 October 1866	Rev - Grant
1221	1 November 1866	John Kerr Amelia Pullivan	John Kerr Amelia Sullivan 💍 1866/7663	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 21	Lake Ellesmere Christchurch	2 yrs 2 yrs	W Fraser's House	1132		1 November 1866	Rev C Fraser
1222	1 November 1866	Patrick Swords Ediza Bury	Patrick Swords Eliza Curry 💍 1866/7468	Bachelor Spinster	Servant Servant	25 23	Riccarton Do	4 1/2 yrs 12 mos	Roman Catholic Chc. Chapel	1065		1 November 1866	Rev - Bhatan
1223	5 November 1866	William Morland Parah Barrett	William Morland Sarah Barrett 💍 1866/7318	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 26	Fendall Town Do	3 years 2 years	Riccarton	1013		28 November 1866	Rev C L How
1224	5 November 1866	Andrew Wilson Mary Ann Bowie	Andrew Wilson Mary Ann Cowie 💍 1866/7471	Bachelor Spinster	Police Sergt. - able	27 23	Christchurch Do	14 days 7 days	Roman Catholic Chapel ChCh	1066		5 November 1866	Rev Chataing
1225	5 November 1866	Albert Partridge Ellen Joyce	Albert Cartridge Ellen Joyce 💍 1866/7345	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	26 18	Christchurch Do	2 1/2 yrs 3 days	Avonside Church	1022	Ann Barnes Mother	7 November 1866	Rev - Bagns

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).