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 426

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
1334	March 22 1867	Charles Kelly Howells Maggie Hall	Charles Selby Howell Maggie Hall 💍 1867/7690	Bachelor Spinster	Sadler	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 5 weeks	In the Church of St John	1137		March 22 1867	Rev. C. Bowen Hoare
1335	March 23 1867	Thomas Gildon Mary Houlahan	Thomas Gibson Mary Houlihan 💍 1867/7621	Bachelor	Farmer	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Days 3 weeks	In the house of the Rev. Grant	1113		March 23 1867	The Rev. W. Grant
1336	March 25 1867	William Davis Sarah Priscilla Ellen Trounstin	William Daw Sarah Priscilla Ellen St Quentin 💍 1867/7687	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	31 18	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 3 years	In the Church	1136	The consent of the Father John Sh. Trounstin 1867	March 25 1867	Rev. C. Bowen Hoare
1337	March 25 1867	Morris Fitzpatrick Mary Jane Sadler	Maurice Fitzpatrick Mary Jane Leadley 💍 1867/7801	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the church S. Michael	1176		March 25 1867	The Very Rev. the Dean
1338	March 25 1867	Albert Walkers Maria Chick	Albert Walker Maria Chyke 💍 1867/7444	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	44 42	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 5 years	In the house of the Rev. C. Fraser	1054		March 25 1867	The Rev. C. Fraser
1339	March 26 1867	Louis Smith Sarah Ann Preston	Louis Schmidt Sarah Ann Preston 💍 1867/7453	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 19	Selwyn Christchurch	3 years 4 years	In the house of the Rev. C. Fraser	1057	There is no person in the colony with power to give consent	March 27 1867	The Rev. C. Fraser
1340	March 27 1867	Charles Kelly Houghton Elizabeth Graham	Charles Solly Houghton Elizabeth Graham 💍 1867/7183	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 22	Mount Grey Selwyn	3 years 2 mths	The Church of All Saints	965		March 27 1867	Rev. G. R. H. Blacett
1341	March 27 1867	James Jones Isabella Jones	James Innes Isabella Gunn 💍 1867/7450	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	25 27	Templeton Templeton	2 years 1 week	In the house of the Rev. C. Fraser	1050		March 27 1867	The Rev. C. Fraser
1342	March 27 1867	Augustus Lahmert Henrietta Morley	Augustus Lahmert Henrietta Morley 💍 1867/7765	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the house of Mrs. Smith, Colombo Street	1162	There is no person in the colony having authority to give consent	March 27 1867	The Rev. W. Laben

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).