Intentions to Marry, 1868

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840380, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 457

District of Quarter ending

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

19 February 1868

Alfred Edwin Portlock East
Hannah Patton

Alfred Edwin Portlock East
Hannah Patton
💍 1868/6524

Bachelor
Spinster

Lithographic Printer
Dressmaker

20
22

Christchurch
Do

10 years
8 years

In the Church of St. John

652

Sarah Adley, Mother

19 February 1868

Rev. Bryen Hoare

No	1
Date of Notice	19 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edwin Portlock East	Hannah Patton
	💍 1868/6524
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lithographic Printer	Dressmaker
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	10 years	8 years
Marriage Place	In the Church of St. John
Folio	652
Consent	Sarah Adley, Mother
Date of Certificate	19 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. Bryen Hoare

21 February 1868

Charles Alexander Strong
Bridget Jane O'Halleran

Charles Alexander Strong
Bridget Jane O'Halloran
💍 1868/5882

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34
27

Christchurch
Do

4 Days
4 Days

In the Wesleyan Chapel Rangiora

431

21 February 1868

Rev. J. Buddle

No	2
Date of Notice	21 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Alexander Strong	Bridget Jane O'Halleran
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Alexander Strong	Bridget Jane O'Halloran
	💍 1868/5882
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	27
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	4 Days	4 Days
Marriage Place	In the Wesleyan Chapel Rangiora
Folio	431
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Buddle

21 February 1868

Peter Schneider
Elizabeth Anderson

Peter Schneider
Elizabeth Anderson
💍 1868/6518

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

28
24

Christchurch
Do

3 years
5 years

In the Church of St. John

650

21 February 1868

Rev. Bryen Hoare

No	3
Date of Notice	21 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Schneider	Elizabeth Anderson
	💍 1868/6518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	In the Church of St. John
Folio	650
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. Bryen Hoare

24 February 1868

John Brown
Ellen Silk

John Crow
Ellen Silk
💍 1868/5954

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

33
22

Christchurch
Do

4 years
3 Days

In the Roman Catholic Chapel

455

24 February 1868

Rev. Father Chataigner

No	4
Date of Notice	24 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Brown	Ellen Silk
BDM Match (90%)	John Crow	Ellen Silk
	💍 1868/5954
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	33	22
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	4 years	3 Days
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel
Folio	455
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Chataigner

24 February 1868

Patrick Quinliven
Bridget Cavanaugh

Patrick Ginniven
Bridget Canahan
💍 1868/5951

Widower
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

30
28

Christchurch
Do

5 Days
3 years

In the Roman Catholic Chapel Rangiora

454

24 February 1868

Rev. Father Chataigner

No	5
Date of Notice	24 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Quinliven	Bridget Cavanaugh
BDM Match (77%)	Patrick Ginniven	Bridget Canahan
	💍 1868/5951
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	5 Days	3 years
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Rangiora
Folio	454
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Chataigner

24 February 1868

George Purdie
Mary Anne Clifford

No corresponding marriage registration located

Bachelor
Spinster

Seedsman

32
33

Christchurch
Do

3 Days
3 Days

In the House of Mr. Purdie

24 February 1868

Rev. G. Fraser

No	6
Date of Notice	24 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Purdie	Mary Anne Clifford
	💍 No corresponding marriage registration located
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seedsman
Age	32	33
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	3 Days	3 Days
Marriage Place	In the House of Mr. Purdie
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Fraser

25 February 1868

Patrick McCabe
Mary Healey

Patrick McCabe
Mary Henneley
💍 1868/5957

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

33
19

Christchurch
Do

3 years
18 mths

In the Roman Catholic Chapel

456

25 February 1868

Rev. Father Chataigner

No	7
Date of Notice	25 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick McCabe	Mary Healey
BDM Match (88%)	Patrick McCabe	Mary Henneley
	💍 1868/5957
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	33	19
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	3 years	18 mths
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel
Folio	456
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. Father Chataigner

26 February 1868

Joel James Harper
Elizabeth Smith

Joel James Harper
Elizabeth Smith
💍 1868/6521

Bachelor
Spinster

Groom
Servant

26
21

Christchurch
Do

1 year
1 year

In the Church of St. John

651

26 February 1868

Rev. Bryen Hoare

No	8
Date of Notice	26 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joel James Harper	Elizabeth Smith
	💍 1868/6521
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Groom	Servant
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	In the Church of St. John
Folio	651
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. Bryen Hoare

27 February 1868

Thomas Jones
Maria Salter

Thomas Jones
Maria Salter
💍 1868/5888

Widower
Spinster

Bootmaker
Musician

34
20

St. Albans
Do

1 year
5 years

In the House of Thomas Jones

433

Edward Salter, Father

28 February 1868

Rev. J. Buddle

No	9
Date of Notice	27 February 1868
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Jones	Maria Salter
	💍 1868/5888
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker	Musician
Age	34	20
Dwelling Place	St. Albans	Do
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	In the House of Thomas Jones
Folio	433
Consent	Edward Salter, Father
Date of Certificate	28 February 1868
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Buddle

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).