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 458

District of Quarter ending

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
1609	27 February 1868	Samuel Wolkinson Emma Jane Woolcott	Samuel Dobbinson Emma Jane Woolcott 💍 1868/6341	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 6 months	In the Church of St. Michael	590	27 February 1868	The Very Rev Dean
1610	27 February 1868	Lewis McGregor Mary Coats	Lewis McGregor Mary Coutts 💍 1868/6092	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 21	Riccarton Christchurch	1 year 1 week	In the Scotch Church, Tuan Street	502	27 February 1868	Rev C Fraser
1611	2 March 1868	George Beattie Emma Furby	George Beattie Emma Furby 💍 1868/6431	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer and Publican	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	In the Church of St. Luke	620	2 March 1868	Rev C Fraser
1612	2 March 1868	John Loadman Loyd Mary Ann King	John Cadman Lloyd Mary Ann King 💍 1868/6098	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	28 23	Avonville Christchurch	5 years 3 years	In the House of Mr. King	504	2 March 1868	Rev C Fraser
1613	2 March 1868	William Miller Jeanette Young	William Miller Janet Young 💍 1868/6095	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	36 34	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Days 2 weeks	In the House of Mr. C Fraser	573	2 March 1868	Rev C Fraser
1614	2 March 1868	Frederick Charles Shrimpton Edith Graves	Frederick Charles Shrimpton Edith Graves 💍 1868/6344	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	26 23	Timaru Christchurch	3 years 8 mths	In the Church of St Michael	591	2 March 1868	The Very Rev Dean
1615	3 March 1868	William Wallace Margaret Brown	William Wallace Margaret Brown 💍 1868/6281 William Stewart Janet Brown 💍 1868/10339	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	27 25	Christchurch Lyttelton	4 Days 16 days	In the Scotch Church	567	3 March 1868	Rev G Gray
1616	3 March 1868	James Hardingham Jane Ruddock	James Hardingham Jane Ruddick 💍 1868/5885	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	22 21	Christchurch Durham Street	2 years 5 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	432	3 March 1868	Rev J Budd
1617	5 March 1868	John Rawlinson Jane Lundy	John Rollingson Jane Lundy 💍 1868/5960	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	455	5 March 1868	Rev Father Chatillon

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).