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 421

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
1289	Jany 30	Harry Place Catherine Merton	Harry Stace Catherine Mertons 💍 1867/7957	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Ferry Road Do	15 mos 12 mths	At the office of the Registrar	1229		Jany 30	B Parkerson Jr
1290	Feby 2	Francis Smith Lydia Philpot	Francis Smith Lydia Philpott 💍 1867/7219	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	21 20	Christchurch Shellands	6 years 16 years	In the Wesleyan Church	977	Isaac Philpot, Father	Feby 2	Rev. J. Buller
1291	Feby 2	Edward O'Connor Mary Atkinson	Edward O'Connor Mary Atkinson 💍 1867/7279	Bachelor Widow	Schoolmaster	22 25	Christchurch Do	2 years 6 years	In the Roman Catholic church	997		Feby 2	Rev Father Chataigner
1292	Feby 2	Jessie Johnson Hannah Fouets	Jesse Johnson Hannah Jowett 💍 1867/7792	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	23 19	Christchurch Do	12 mths 3 years	In the Church of St Michael	1171	John J Fouets, Father	Feby 2	The Very Rev the Dean
1293	Feby 4	Martin Gilmour Bridget Carrol	Martin Gilmore Bridget Carrol 💍 1867/7270	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 25	Christchurch Do	1 mth 2 years	In the Roman Catholic church	994		Feby 4	Rev Father Chataigner
1294	Feby 4	John Matthew Maluga Johanna O'Keefe	John Matthew Malluga Johanna O'Keith 💍 1867/7276	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	35 28	Christchurch Do	3 years 2 mth	In the Roman Catholic Church	996		Feby 4	Rev Father Chataigner
1295	Feby 4	Thomas Hullett Eliza Lucy Davis	Thomas Hullett Eliza Lucy Davies 💍 1867/4224	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 18	Christchurch Do	1 week 5 weeks	In the Church of St Johns	1192	George Davis, Brother	Feby 4	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
1296	Feby 4	George Compton Annie Prebble	George Compton Annie Prebble 💍 1867/7411	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 18	Riccarton Do	18 mths 5 years	In the house of the C of E	1042	George Prebble, Father	Feby 4	Rev. C. Hader
1297	Feby 4	Silas Pepperdine Georgina Wyatt Taylor	Silas Papprill Georgina Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1867/7681	Bachelor Widow	Coachbuilder	22 20	Christchurch Do	2 years 3 mos	In the Church of St John	1354		Feby 18	B Parkerson Jr

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).