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 477

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
143	15 July 1868	Robert William Brooker Sarah Ann Baynton	Robert William Croker Stoddart Sarah Ann Baynton 💍 1868/6239	Bachelor Widow	Watchmaker	28 25	Christchurch	5 years 4 years	In the House of [UNCLEAR] High Street Christchurch	552		15 July 1868	Rev. C Fraser
144	17 July 1868	James Thompson Elizabeth M'Cance	James Thompson Elizabeth McCance 💍 1868/4287	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 24	Christchurch	3 days 3 Days	In the House of Rev [UNCLEAR]	553		17 July 1868	Rev J Thornton
145	17 July 1868	Robert Free Flora Thompson	Robert Free Flora Thompson 💍 1868/6566	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	23 22	Christchurch	[UNCLEAR] [UNCLEAR]	In the House of Oxford M. Lee [UNCLEAR] Street Christchurch	668		17 July 1868	B Parkerson Jun
146	19 July 1868	Robert Coopers Rode Ellen Alice Hewlings	Robert Cooper Rose Ellen Allise Hewlings 💍 1868/6950	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in the Bank	22 21	Christchurch do	1 month	In the Registrar's office Christchurch	800		19 July 1868	B Parkerson Jun
147	20 July 1868	Edwin William French Mary Ellen Duckmanton	Edwin William Trent Mary Ellen Duckmanton 💍 1868/6242	Bachelor Spinster	Steam Engine Driver Housekeeper	28 35	Christchurch	6 years 8 years	In the House Rev C Fraser Christchurch	554		20 July 1868	Rev C Fraser
148	21 July 1868	William Ballan Catherine House	William Callan Catherine Howe 💍 1868/6014 William Wade Catherine Byrne 💍 1868/5474 William Barr Catherine Dinning 💍 1868/5237 William Morrison Catherine Kitson 💍 1868/8156 William McMurray Catherine Kerr 💍 1868/9970	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 23	Leeston Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	475		21 July 1868	Rev Father Chataigner
149	22 July 1868	Reuben Parr Maria Greaves	Reuben Parr Maria Greaves 💍 1868/6455	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 24	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St Luke Christchurch	628		22 July 1868	Rev C A Luigard
150	23 July 1868	Littleton George Griffiths Annie Unwin	Littleton George Griffiths Annie Unwin 💍 1868/6458	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	23 19	Christchurch do	3 Days [UNCLEAR]	In the Church of St Luke Christchurch	629	Harriet Unwin, Mother	23 July 1868	Rev C A Luigard
151	24 July 1868	Edmund Bosworth Haddington Hesther Jane Stepney	Edmund Cosworthy Waddington Hesther Jane Stepney 💍 1868/10541	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	31 22	Christchurch	1 week 10 mths	In the Church of St John Christchurch	659		24 July 1868	Rev O Bryen Hoare

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).