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 455

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
1545	December 9 1864	John Hunter Martha Bellinda Broadley	John Hunter Martha Belinda Broadley 💍 1867/7594	Widower Spinster	Grocer	33 23	Christchurch Christchurch	8 days 6 mths Lincoln Road	In the House	1104		December 9 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
1546	December 10 1864	William Loughlin Emma Flint	William Longden Emma Flint 💍 1868/6512	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	26 21	Lincoln Christchurch	2 years 3 years	In the Church of St John	648		December 10 1864	Rev. C. Bryce Houre
1547	December 14 1864	Joseph Wilkinson Fanny Rees	Joseph Wilkinson Fanny Rees 💍 1867/7597	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	23 18	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	1105	There is no person within Colony having authority to give Consent	December 14 1864	Rev. C. Fraser
1548	December 14 1864	Fredrick Wright Margaret Russell Wilson	Frederick Wright Margaret Russell Aiken 💍 1867/7198	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 18	Three Springs Three Springs	3 years 1 year Springston	In the House	970		December 14 1864	Rev. J. Campbell
1549	December 14 1864	John Coleman Margaret Ann Fhistle	John Coleman Margaret Annie Johnston 💍 1867/7177	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	28 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 4 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	903		December 14 1864	Rev. J. Buddle
1550	December 17 1864	Patrick Donnelly Catherine McGill	Patrick Donnelly Catherine McGill 💍 1867/7390	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housekeeper	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1034		December 17 1864	Rev. Father Chataigner
1551	December 19 1864	Daniel Tucker Rebecca Annie Kelso	Daniel Tucker Rebecca Annie Kelson 💍 1867/7114	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	39 22	Christchurch St Albans	2 mths 4 mths	In the House of Mr. Needham	941		December 19 1864	Rev. John Aldred
1552	December 19 1864	Thomas Turner Cusins Isabella Foulds	Thomas Turner Carter Isabella Foulds 💍 1867/7888	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days	In the Church of St Michael	1206		December 19 1864	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
1553	December 20 1864	Donald McLachlan Elizabeth Sandison		Widower Spinster	Carman Servant	45 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 weeks	In the House	1106		December 20 1864	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).