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 451

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1309	October 28	Frederick Sass Mary Ann Young	Frederick Lass Mary Ann Young 💍 1867/7573	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 31	Christchurch Christchurch	6 mths 6 mths	The House of Rev. C Fraser	1099	October 28	Rev. C. Fraser
1310	October 28	Alfred Kengsford Annie Frances Pearce	Alfred Ringwood Annie Francis 💍 1867/7867	Bachelor Spinster	Pastry cook Milliner	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	12 mth 12 mth	In the Church	1199	November 20	The Very Rev. the Dean
1311	November 12	Thomas Coleman Susannah Hughes	Thomas Coalman Susan Hughes 💍 1867/7381	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Servant	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	10 mth 10 mths	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1031	November 1	Rev. Father Chataigner
1312	November 2	Edmund Charles Cartmel Jemima Weeks	Edmund Charles Cartmel Hannah Jemima Wicks 💍 1868/6488	Bachelor Spinster	Hatter Dressmaker	21 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 mths 3 mths	In the Church	640	November 2	Rev. L. Moore
1313	Nov. 6	Henry M. Butcher Mary Anne Geovey	Henry McCutchen Mary Ann Guaney 💍 1867/7669 Henry Mitchell Mary Ann Hewlett 💍 1867/8290	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Malvern Hills Rangiora	9 mths 3 years	In the House of R. W. Grant	1130	November 20	Rev. G. Grant
1314	Nov. 11	William Lyons Elizabeth Mary Garney	William Syms Elizabeth Mary Garmey 💍 1867/7744 William Foss Elizabeth Haggerty 💍 1867/8437 William Legg Elizabeth Doyle 💍 1867/5185 William Paine Elizabeth Hannon 💍 1867/5698 William Dixon Buddle Elizabeth Mary Cooke 💍 1867/7174 William Renton Elizabeth Fraser 💍 1867/9895 William Harkness Elizabeth Sharland 💍 1867/8932 William Price Elizabeth Mulligan 💍 1867/9532	Bachelor Spinster	Pastoral	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 mth	In the Church St. John	1135	Nov. 27	Rev. O'Bryan Hoare
1315	Nov. 11	Peter Anderson Mary Currie	Peter Anderson Mary Currie 💍 1867/7576	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 yrs 1 mth	In the House	1098	Nov. 11	Rev. C. Frazer
1316	Nov. 13	Henry Maddison Clara Stokes	Henry Maddison Clara Slater 💍 1867/7876	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 1/2 years 10 mths	In the Church St. Michael	1202	Nov. 13	The Very Rev. the Dean
1317	Nov. 14	Joseph Lee Jane Souter	Joseph Lee Jane Souter 💍 1867/7168 John McLeay Jane Souter 💍 1867/10171	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	32 30	Christchurch Durham Street	4 years 3 years	The Wesleyan Chapel	560	Nov. 14	Rev. J. Budd

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).