Intentions to Marry, 1867

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840379, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 420

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
1280	Jany 12	Isaac Searle Ellen Fray	Isaac Searle Ellen Fry 💍 1867/7789	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 9 mths	Church	1170		1867	The Very Rev ? Dean Jacobs
1281	Jany 14	John McCann Caroline Checkley	John McCann Caroline Chickley 💍 1867/7255	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Servant	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Days 5 Days	Roman Catholic Church	980		1867	Rev Father Chataigner
1282	Jany 14	Patrick Murray Agnes Robertson	Frederick Murray Dunn Agnes Robertson 💍 1867/7405 Patrick Conway Jessie Robertson 💍 1867/9298	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	At the house of James Robertson	1040	Agnes Robertson, mother	1867	Rev J. B. Fraser
1283	Jany 14	Frederick Thomas Adams Annie Broom Neilson	Frederick Thomas Adams Annie Broom Neilson 💍 1867/7402	Bachelor Spinster		33 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	At the house of Mrs Neilson	1039	Jeanette Broom Neilson, mother	1867	Rev J. C. Fraser
1284	Jany 19	Daniel Buckley Mary Heffernan	Daniel Buckley Mary Heffen 💍 1867/7258	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Church	990		1867	Rev Father Chataigner
1285	Jany 22	William John Taylor Annie Canty	William John Taylor Annie Cantie 💍 1867/7408	Bachelor Spinster	Innkeeper	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 4 years	In the house of Mrs Canty	1041		1867	Rev J. C. Fraser
1286	Jany 22	James Daly Nora Wale	James Daly Norah Wall 💍 1867/7261	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	Catholic Church	991		1867	Rev Father Chataigner
1287	Jany 23	William Bryson Priscilla Hide Olline	William Dyson Priscilla Hicks Olliver 💍 1867/4178	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Wesleyan Church	940		1867	Rev J. Buddle
1288	Jany 24	William Henry Smith Ellen McGuire	William Henry Smith Ellen McGuire 💍 1867/7264	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	32 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	992		1867	Rev Father Chataigner

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).