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 423

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1307	Feb 16 1867	Andrew Joseph Moloney Farmer Catherine Higgins	Andrew Lysaght Catherine Higgins 💍 1867/7285	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Church	999	Feb 16	Rev Father Chataigner
1308	Feb 16 1867	William Henry Wilson Jane Jillett	William Henry Willson Jane Gillett 💍 1867/7225	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	26 21	Riccarton Halswell	6 weeks 2 year	Church	999	Feb 16	Rev G Carpenter
1309	Feb 18 1867	James Newlands Ryan Ellen Davidson Rolls		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 3 years	In the Scotch Church	1045	Feb 18	Rev C Fraser
1310	Feb 18 1867	Thomas Mobbs Margaret Burgers	Thomas Hobbs Margaret Burgess 💍 1867/7426	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 3 weeks	In the house of the Streets Presbyterian	1049	Feb 18	Rev C Fraser
1311	Feb 18 1867	James Brown Rosalie Webb	James Brown Rosalie Webb 💍 1867/7423	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Dressmaker	33 22	Ferry Road Ferry Road	1 week 1 week	In the house of the Streets Presbyterian	1046	Feb 18	Rev C Fraser
1312	Feb 19 1867	Matthew O'Brien Julia Higgins	Matthew O'Brien Julia Higgins 💍 1867/7288	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Leeston Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	1000	Feb 19	Rev Father Chataigner
1313	Feb 25 1867	Charles Legard Rosina Schwarz		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	20 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Jewish Synagogue		Feb 25	Rev [UNCLEAR] Jones
1314	Feb 21 1867	Michael O'Grady Mary Welsh	Michael Darcy Mary Welsh 💍 1867/7291	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Roman Catholic Church	1001	Feb 21	Rev Father Chataigner
1315	Feb 22 1867	Peter Fraser Isabella Chalmers	Peter Innes Isabella Chalmers 💍 1867/7429 James Watt Isabella Chalmers 💍 1867/4486	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 24	Lincoln Ferry Road	6 months 6 months	In the house of the Streets Presbyterian	1048	Feb 22	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).