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 450

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
1500	October 8	James Vickers Jane Anne McIvor	James Vickers Jane Ann McIvor 💍 1867/7561	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 weeks 3 Days	In the House	1093		October 8	Revd C. Fraser
1501	October 9	Frederick Andrew Berg Isabella Kennedy	Frederick Andrew Berg Isabella McKennedy 💍 1867/7663	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	34 26	Ferry Road 29th Litchfield Street	1 year	In the Scotch Church	1128		October 9	Revd J. Grant
1502	October 9	William Campbell Ellen Bryan	William Campbell Ellen Bryne 💍 1867/7564	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	31 24	Christchurch Wattons	4 days 2 mths	In the House	1094		October 9	Revd C. Fraser
1503	October 16	William Thompson Elizabeth Servant	William Thompson Elizabeth Dobson 💍 1867/7915	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year	In the Church of St. Luke	1215		October 16	Revd E. A. Lingard
1504	October 19	Henry Rothery Eliza Black	Henry Rothery Eliza Black 💍 1867/7180	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	42 23	Leeston Southbridge	2 years 9 mths	In the Church	1167		October 19	Revd J. J. Bennett
1505	October 21	Thomas Hank Asquith Hannah Ellis	Thomas Sharp Asquith Hannah Ellis 💍 1867/7567	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	25 24	Christchurch Papanui Road	4 years 5 years	In the House of Mr Earneshaw	1095		October 21	Revd C. Fraser
1506	October 22	John Miles Bambridge Mary Jane Middleweek	John Miles Cambridge Mary Jane Middleweek 💍 1867/7738	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	32 14	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In the Church of St John	1153	William Middleweek, Father	October 22	Revd C. Bowen Hoare
1507	October 26	George Henderson Eleanor Mawson	Crispin Sanderson Eleanor Mawson 💍 1867/7870	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	Leeston Christchurch	3 years 5 years	In the Church of St Michael	1200		October 26	The very Revd H. J. C. Harper
1508	October 28	Robert Forbes Charlotte Munro	Robert Forbes Charlotte Munro 💍 1867/7570	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the House of Revd Fraser	1095		October 28	Revd 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).