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 464

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1647	17 April 1868	Hamilton Richardson Caroline Hewson	Hamilton Richardson Bell Caroline Hewson 💍 1868/4428	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	22 22	Ashburton Do	5 years 4 years	In the House of James Bell	578		17 April 1868	Rev. C Fraser
1648	17 April 1868	Richard Maffey Louisa Aphia Byrne	Richard Maffey Louisa Sophia Byrne 💍 1868/6494	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Selwyn Papanui	1 year 5 years	In the Papanui Church	644		17 April 1868	Rev. L Moore
1649	18 April 1868	Byreed Wilson Matilda Robinson	Cyrus Wilson Matilda Robinson 💍 1868/5900	Widower Widow	Miller	39 32	Ayles Mile Christchurch	3 mths 1 week	In Allenton House St Asaph Street	437		18 April 1868	Rev. J Buddle
1650	18 April 1868	David Williams Ellen Clark	David Williams Ellen Clark 💍 1868/6143	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	31 38	Prebbleton Do	4 years 4 years	In the Scotch Church	520		18th April 1868	Rev. C Fraser
1651	20 April 1868	John Workman Ellen Toneycliff	John Workman Ellen Toney Cliff 💍 1868/6530	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 20	Christchurch Do	4 Days 3 mths	In the Church of St John	654	There is no person in the Colony having authority to give Consent	20 April 1868	Rev. C Bryne
1652	20 April 1868	William Geddes Anna Broom	William Geddes Hannah Broome 💍 1868/6140	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	28 33	Springs Track Do	2 years 5 years	In the House of R C Fraser	579		20 April 1868	Rev. C Fraser
1653	23 April 1868	Charles Augustus Cater Ellen Grey	Charles Augustus Oakes Ellen Grey 💍 1868/5981	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 21	Christchurch Do	5 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	464		23 April 1868	Rev. Father Cholal
1654	23 April 1868	James Ross Isabella Hunter	James Ross Isabella Hunter 💍 1868/6146	Bachelor Widow	Mason	36 37	Christchurch Do	1 week 3 years	In the House of Patrick Barley	557		23 April 1868	Rev. C Fraser
1655	25 April 1868	Lyonel Charles William Lucy Mumford	Lyonel Charles Williams Lucy Dunford 💍 1868/6149	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	22 22	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Clarendon Hotel	522		25 April 1868	Rev. W 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).