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 444

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
1454	August 13	James Lace Ellen [UNCLEAR]		Widower Spinster	Gardener Servant	53 23	Avonside Do	1 year 2 years	At the Church	1745		August 15	Rev C. Frazer
1455	August 8	James Lyon Isabella Ennis	James Lyons Isabella Ennis 💍 1867/7534	Bachelor Spinster	Sawdresser Servant	21 22	Heathcote Valley Do	3 years	In the House	1084		August 8	Rev. J. Fraser
1456	August 12	James Gleeson Mary Havill	James Close Mary Hammill 💍 1867/7348 James Simpkin Mary Hall 💍 1867/5086 James McEwan Mary Melville 💍 1867/5320	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	31 26	Christchurch Do	6 years Do	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1020		August 12	Rev Father Chataigner
1457	August 13	John Osborne Mary Rennie	Job Osborne Mary Robertson Jamieson 💍 1867/7192	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Leeston Do	1 year Do	In the House of Mrs Rennie	1008	Helen Rennie, mother	August 13	Rev J. Buller
1458	August 14	John Williams Annie Menzies	John Williams Annie McNamara 💍 1867/7861	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	27 20	Christchurch Do	4 days 3 Days	St Michaels	1197		August 14	The Very Rev the Dean
1459	August 15	William Fairbairn Jane Johnson	William Fairbairn Jane Johnston 💍 1867/7156	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Do	9 days Do	Wesleyan Chapel			August 15	Rev. Buddle
1460	September 3	John Partinson Maria McDonald	John Parkinson Maria McDonald 💍 1867/7540 John Cassey Margaret McDonald 💍 1867/5746 Roderick Matheson Mary McDonald 💍 1867/10048	Widower Spinster	Tailor Servant	28 28	Christchurch Do	1 year 6 mths	In the House of Mrs Braun	1086		September 5	Rev. C. Frazer
1461	August 22	William Maiden S. Chesnall		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 22	Selwyn Papanui	5 mths 3 mths	In the Church of St Michael	1198		August 22	The Very Rev the Dean
1462	August 22	George Jackson Ann Wilson	George Jackson Agnes Wilson 💍 1867/7537	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Riccarton	2 years 3 years	In the Scotch Church	1085		August 22	The 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).