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

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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
1761	8 August 1868	Harry Feast Lizzie Jane Daniels	Harry Feast Lizzie Jane Daniels 💍 1868/6260	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	31 21	Christchurch Do	2 years 1 year	In the House of Mr. Paddy, Montreal Street	560		8 August 1868	Rev. C. Fraser
1762	8 August 1868	William Sweet Oliver Elizabeth Morrison	William Street Olliver Elizabeth Morrison 💍 1868/6257	Bachelor Widow	Carrier Servant	29 28	Christchurch Do	9 mths 5 years	In the House of Mr. Paddy, Montreal Street	559		8 August 1868	Rev. C. Fraser
1763	10 August 1868	William Murray Mary M. Nicol	William Murray Kennedy Mary McNicol 💍 1868/6269 William Morgan Mary Hall 💍 1868/7082	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	27 23	Christchurch Do	4 years 3 years	In the House of & Hennedy	563		10 August 1868	Rev. C. Fraser
1764	11 August 1868	Thomas Thoruley Eliza Hayes	Thomas Thornley Eliza Hayes 💍 1868/6383	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Ferry road Do	3 years 3 years	In the Church of St. Michael Christchurch	604		11 August 1868	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
1765	11 August 1868	Edward Mellow Margaret Elizabeth Cooper	Edward Mellon Margaret Elizabeth Cooper 💍 1868/4943	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	25 26	Christchurch Springfield road	1 year 8 years	In the House of Mr. Cooper Springfield road			11 August 1868	Rev. C. Aldred
1766	13 August 1868	James Robertson Martha Midgley	James Robertson Martha Midgley 💍 1868/6734	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Laundress	24 22	Kaiapoi Christchurch	2 years 3 years	In the House of Mr. Wake North road Kaiapoi	726		13 August 1868	Rev. J. B. Richardson
1767	15 August 1868	John Slattery Elizabeth O'Brien	John Slattery Elizabeth O'Brien 💍 1868/6020	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 25	Leeston Do	3 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	477		15 August 1868	Rev. Father Chataigner
1768	15 August 1868	William White Mary M. Laren	William White Mary McLaren 💍 1868/6581 William White Mary Ann Peagram 💍 1868/6116 William White Martha McGrath 💍 1868/5402	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Malvern Hills Do	2 years 4 years	In the Presbyterian Church Selwyn	673		15 August 1868	Rev. J. Campbell
1769	15 August 1868	George Ben Steele Sarah Jackson	George Benn Steele Sarah Jackson 💍 1868/6263	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	Riccarton Do	2 years 1 year	In the Scotch Church Tuam street	561	Henry Jackson, Father	15 August 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).