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 424

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
1316	July 26	Robert Campbell Martha Mathews	Robert Campbell Martha Matthews 💍 1867/7432	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	38 24	Papanui Do	3 days 4 mths	In the house	1049		July 26	Rev. C. Fraser
1317	Feby 26	Thomas Holmes Julia Booth	Thomas Hoben Julia Booth 💍 1867/7294	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 24	Christchurch Do	12 mths 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	1002		Feby 26	Rev. Father Chataigner
1318	Feby 27	Charles Napier Milner Hamilton		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 20	Christchurch Do	9 mths 1 year	In St Lukes Church	1212	Colony [UNCLEAR] the Marriage Act 1864	Feby 27	Rev. G. Carpenter
1319	Feby 28	Henry William Vincent Maud Mitchelmore	Henry William Vincent Dinah Michelmore Rossiter 💍 1867/7798	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	Kaiapoi Do	10 years 3 mths	In the Church	1191		Feby 28	The Very Rev the Dean
1320	March 4	William Corby Maria O'Meagher	William Corboy Maria O'Mara 💍 1867/7297	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 30	Riccarton Do	2 years 2 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	1003		March 4	Rev. Father Chataigner
1321	March 6	James Ard Jane Bell	James Reid Jane Bell 💍 1867/7435	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Miner Servant	30 26	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 years	In the house of James Bell	1050		March 6	Rev. C. Fraser
1322	March 6	Oliver Evering Mary Morley	Oliver Ewings Mary Morley 💍 1867/7684	Widower Spinster	Bricklayer	31 22	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	In the Church of St John	1135		March 6	Rev. Chas H. Howes
1323	March 11	Wallace Luscombe Mary Blackmore	Wallace Laraman Mary Blackmore 💍 1867/7228	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	1 year 2 years	In the Church of St Michael	950		March 11	Rev. - Carpenter
1324	March 13	Robert Sherlock Mason Selina Ann Harwood		Bachelor Spinster	Draper	31 25	Christchurch Do	4 years 10 mths	In the Church of St Michael	1199		March 29	The Very Rev the Dean

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).