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 436

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
1410	June 7	Thomas Noble Foster Eleanor Robertson	Thomas Scatter Jane Robertson 💍 1867/8755	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St John	1141	Edmund Robertson, Father	June 7	Rev. C. Obrion Toore
1411	June 8	George Gaynor Jemima Potter	George Gaynor Emma Potton 💍 1867/7831	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 mths 3 years	In the Church of St Michael	1166		June 8	The Very Rev. the Dean
1412	June 13	James Caskeris Grace Henderson	James Coskerie Grace Henderson 💍 1867/7639	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years	In the house of W. Henderson	1120	William Henderson, Father	June 13	Rev. G. Grant
1413	June 14	John Coudens Ellen Noonan	John Condon Ellen Hoben 💍 1867/7333	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Servant	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1015		June 14	Rev. Father Chataigne
1414	June 15	William Sutherland Catherine Dolphy	William Sutherland Catherine Bulyher 💍 1867/7336	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 23	Ferry Road Heathcote	6 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1016		June 15	Rev. Father Chataigne
1415	June 13	Thomas Edwin Cassidy Sylvia Roland Smith	Thomas Edwin Cassidy Sibylla Pollard Smith 💍 1867/7771	Widower Widow	Baker	31 34	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 6 mths		1164
1416	June 14	William Cherry Edna Shard	William Cherry Edna Izard 💍 1867/7834	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	46 34	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Days 3 years	In the Church of St Michael	1189		June 14	The Very Rev. the Dean
1417	June 18	Henry Matson Edith Dearden	Henry Matson Edith Dearden 💍 1867/7837	Widower Spinster	Merchant	52 24	Papanui Christchurch	9 years 6 mths	In the Church of St Michael	1188		June 18	The Very Rev. the Dean
1418	June 19	Henry Albert Haskins Elizabeth Roberts	Henry Albert Waghorn Elizabeth Boleyn 💍 1867/7507	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	32 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 8 years	In the house of the Rev. C. Frazer	1075		June 19	Rev. C. Frazer

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).