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 432

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
1374	April 24	Mathew Driscol Sarah Cave	Matthew Driscol Sarah Cane AKA Cain 💍 1867/7312	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	39 23	Leeston Leeston	10 mths 5 mths	In the Roman Catholic Church	1008		April 24	Rev. Father Chataigner
1375	April 26	Henry Bennett Wilson Maria Page	Henry Bennett Maria Page 💍 1867/7633	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	35 39	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 1 year	In the house of the Rev.	1117		April 26	Rev. G. Grant
1376	April 26	George Frederick Carpenter Fanny Chapman	George Frederick Carpenter Fanny Chapman 💍 1867/7237	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	26 25	Riccarton Riccarton	4 years 2 years	Riccarton Church	913		April 26	Rev. G. Carpenter
1377	April 26	James Standieven Mary Jane Carter	James Standeven Mary Jane Carter 💍 1867/7630	Bachelor Widow	Carrier	38 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the house of the Rev.	1118		April 26	Rev. G. Grant
1378	April 27	Thomas Woolley Augusta Jordan	Thomas Woolley Augusta Jordan 💍 1867/7483	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	33 24	Halswell Halswell	3 years 6 mths	In the house of William Jordan	1119		April 27	Rev. G. Traser
1379	April 29	Alfred Frederick Gwattiu Agnes Elizabeth Dunbar	Albert Frederick Gwatkins Agnes Elizabeth Dunbar 💍 1867/7480	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 Days	In the house of Wm. Campbell	1120		April 29	Rev. G. Traser
1380	April 29	William Thomas Nicholl Mary Ann Pentecoste	William Thomas Pentecost Mary Ann Pentecost 💍 1867/7207	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	Opawa Church	973		April 29	Rev. G. Cholmondely
1381	April 29	Daniel Reese Cecilia Wilson	Daniel Reese Cecilia Wilson 💍 1867/7636	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	25 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 4 years	In the house of the Rev.	1118	John Wilson, Father	April 29	Rev. G. Grant
1382	April 30	John Adam Berg Elizabeth Nims	John Adam Berg Elizabeth Nimo 💍 1867/7315	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	1119		April 30	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).