Intentions to Marry, 1869

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840381, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 455

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
1059	25 January 1869	Henry Beafonds Smith Rosetta Everett	Henry Bedford Rosetta Everett 💍 1869/7383	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Customs	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 mths 6 mths	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1013		25 January 1869	Rev. C Fraser
1060	25 January 1869	William Anderson Isabella Brown	William Anderson Isabella Brown 💍 1869/7386	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 23	Ellesmere Christchurch	1 year 3 mths	In the House of Rev. C Laser	1004		25 January 1869	Rev. C Laser
1061	27 January 1869	Charles Cowen Maria Barr	Charles William Corner Maria Barrett 💍 1869/7257	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Lincoln Prebbleton	2 years 6 years	In the Church	1020		27 January 1869	Rev. R Jack
1062	28 January 1869	Melusin Shandley Margaret Calder	William Shanley Margaret Calder 💍 1869/7287	Widower Spinster	Coachbuilder Servant	50 28	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 6 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1030		28 January 1869	Rev. Father Ch
1063	29 January 1869	Lachlan McKinnon Hardy Sarah Alice Kidd	Lachlan McHardy Sarah Alice Kidd 💍 1869/7638	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 1 mth	In the Church of St. Michael	1151	Jane Kidd, mother	29 January 1869	The Very Rev. Dean
1064	29 January 1869	David Thomas Bryon Pheb Charlotte Mckinaber		Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In the Church of St. Michael	1150		29 January 1869	The Very Rev. Dean
1065	1 February 1869	William McWilliam Elizabeth Blackman	William Austin Elizabeth Blackmore 💍 1869/7758 William Kelly Elizabeth Williamson 💍 1869/8517	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Servant	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 5 years	In the Congregational Chapel	1164		1 February 1869	Rev. W. J. Habens
1066	2 February 1869	Charles Osborne Hill Jenny Ida Frederika Kauffmann	Charles Osborn Hill Jenny Ida Frederika Kaufmann 💍 1869/9615	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Riccarton Riccarton	10 years 4 mths	In the Church	1165		2 February 1869	Rev. C. Fraser
1067	3 February 1869	John Puff Sophia Oeste	John Puff Sophia Scott 💍 1869/7815	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 mth 3 mths	In The House of Rev. G Gray	1212		3 February 1869	Rev. G Gray

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).