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 433

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
1383	May 1	Enoch Smyth Margaret Goodwin	Enoch Smart Margaret Goodwin 💍 1867/7234	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 22	Templeton Templeton	2 years 6 months	In the Church Riccarton	712		May 11	Rev. G. Carpenter
1384	May 4	Andrew Hart Helen B. Peters	Andrew Hart Helen Bett Peters 💍 1867/7486	Bachelor Spinster	Officer	31 28	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the house of the R.C.C.	1068		May 4	Rev. C. Fraser
1385	May 4	Henry Hodgson Annie Byron	Henry Hodgson Annie Byron 💍 1867/7321	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	1071		May 4	Rev. Father Chataigner
1386	May 6	George John Barker Frances Ruth Merry	George John Barker Francis Ruth Merry 💍 1867/7120	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Avonside Avonside	3 years 12 years	In the Avonside Church	993	Thomas Merry, Father	May 7	Rev. G. Bagshaw
1387	May 6	Peter McGrath Annie McGrath	Peter McGrath Ann McHugh 💍 1867/7318	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Church	1010		May 6	Rev. Father Chataigner
1388	May 6	James Peacock Jane Long	James Peacock Jane Long 💍 1867/7144	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 month	In the Wesleyan Chapel	932	There is no one in the colony having the right to consent	May 6	Rev. J. Budle
1389	May 7	Robert Thomas Emma Sykes	Robert Thomas Emma Sykes 💍 1867/7240	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	32 24	Lincoln Road Fendalton	3 months 9 months	In the Riccarton Church	984		May 7	Rev. G. Carpenter
1390	May 7	Abraham John Williams Martha Stephen	Abraham John Williams Martha Stephens 💍 1867/7819	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Leeston Leeston	1 year 3 months	In the church of St. Michael & All Angels	1182	George Stephen, Brother	May 7	The Very Rev. the Dean
1391	May 8	Tom Helms Caroline Amy Briston	Tom Holmes Caroline Amy Bristow 💍 1867/7504	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Weedons Weedons	2 years 4 months	In the house of the Rev. Colnso	1174	In the colony having no right to consent	May 8	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).