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 453

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
1527	Nov 21	Thomas Hemings Annie Maria Lilly	Thomas Hemmings Annie Maria Lilly 💍 1867/7879	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	36 33	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 9 mths	In the Church	1203		Nov 21	The Very Rev the Dean
1528	Nov 21	John Barter Mary Young	John Baxter Mary Young 💍 1867/7582	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Servant	30 30	Christchurch Christchurch	15 days 3 Days	In the House Akaroa	1100		Nov 21	Rev C Fraser
1529	Nov 21	Andrew Bartie Susan Brown	Andrew Hart Susan Brown 💍 1867/4906 Andrew Baxter Susan Brown 💍 1867/7585	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Servant	23 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house Akaroa	1101		Nov 21	Rev C Fraser
1530	Nov 22	Francis Millichamp Sarah Ange	Francis Millicham Sarah Ainge 💍 1868/5879	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 30	Leeston Leeston	1 year 5 mths	In the Leeston Church	430		Nov 22	Rev W.C. Bluett
1531	Nov 25	Charles Shand Coote Emma Green	Charles Shead Odell Emma Green 💍 1867/7921	Bachelor Spinster		30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	18 mths 1 year	Church	1217		Nov 25	Rev E.A. Lingard
1532	December 13	Thomas Schivers Charlotte Foster	Thomas Chivers Charlotte Foster 💍 1867/7216	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 1 year	In Papanui Church	996		December 13	Rev J.C. Cholmondely
1533	November 12	William Whitney Darvall Eliza Griffin	William Whitney Dartnall Eliza Griffin 💍 1867/4288	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	23 26	Christchurch Kilmore Street	6 years 4 years	In the House of Mr Howard	940		December 12	Rev J. Aldred
1534	November 28	Patrick O'Callaghan Emma Ware	Patrick O'Callaghan Emma Ware 💍 1867/7387	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Mount Grey	1033		Nov 28	Rev Father O'Donnell
1535	November 30	Jonathan Baker Anne Earnshaw	Jonathan Baker Ann Earnshaw 💍 1867/7588	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Springs Bush H Albans	1 year 1 year	In the Scotch Church	402	Thomas Earnshaw, Father	November 30	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).