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 466

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
1665	2 May 1868	William Humphrey Jane Merrin	William Davy Humphreys Jane Merrin 💍 1868/6437	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	28 21	Avonville Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In the Church of St. Luke	622	2 May 1868	Rev. E. A. Lingard
1666	4 May 1868	John Ray Elizabeth Grinsey	John McKay Elizabeth Grimsey 💍 1868/6164 John Taylor Elizabeth France 💍 1868/6773 John Roby Sarah Elizabeth Higgins 💍 1868/8168 John Aikman Elizabeth Kennedy 💍 1868/10495 John Browne Elizabeth Bisset 💍 1868/6176 John Smith Elizabeth Evans 💍 1868/9626	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	28 22	Dumpleton Do	1 year 4 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	527	4 May 1868	Rev. C. Fraser
1667	4 May 1868	John Leith Elizabeth Evans	John Smith Elizabeth Evans 💍 1868/9626	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper	45 26	Riccarton Do	4 years 2 years	Christchurch	2331	4 May 1868	Rev. C. Bowen
1668	4 May 1868	Simon Hossack Jane Wadsworth	Simon Hossack Jane Wardsworth 💍 1868/6584	Bachelor Spinster	Manager at Hation	29 29	Christchurch Do	2 months 2 months	In the Registrar's Office	674	4 May 1868	B. Parkerson Jun.
1669	5 May 1868	Hugh Kavanagh Mary Hogan	Hugh Kavanagh Mary Hogan 💍 1868/5978	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 21	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 7 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	463	5 May 1868	Rev. Father Chate
1670	5 May 1868	Peter Hankinson Maria Francis Grant	Peter Hankinson Maria Frances 💍 1868/8	Bachelor Widow	Cabinetmaker	35 37	Christchurch Do	5 years 3 years	In the House of Rev. G. Grant	519	5 May 1868
1671	7 May 1868	John Morgan Davida Leven	John Morgan Davidina Gunn 💍 1868/6287	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	26 22	Christchurch Do	8 weeks 18 months	In the House of Rev. G. Grant	570	7 May 1868	Rev. G. Grant
1672	7 May 1868	Robert Cliffe Eliza Lawrence	Robert Iliffe Eliza Lawrence 💍 1868/6440	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	29 24	Christchurch Papanui	6 years 3 months	In the Church of St. Luke	623	7 May 1868	Rev. E. A. Lingard
1673	8 May 1868	Frederick Delamaine Luckie Marion Jennings Ravenshaw	Frederick Delauney Luckie Maria Jennings Davenport 💍 1868/6167	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	24 24	Avonside Do	18 months 18 months	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	528	8 May 1868	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).