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 457

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
1841	5 January 1869	John Nelson Sophia Pryke	John Nilson Sophia Pryke 💍 1869/7371	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	50 23	Christchurch	3 mths 3 mths	In the House of Mr. Adley	1059		January 5 1869	Rev. C. Yaldon
1842	7 January 1869	William Bradshaw Sarah Holland	William Bradshaw Sarah Holland 💍 1869/7281	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 19	Christchurch	10 mths 18 mths	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1028	Hugh Holland, Father	January 7 1869	Rev. Father Chataux
1843	9 January 1869	Thomas Tolerton Catherine Bele	Thomas Tolertin Catherine Bell 💍 1869/9618	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 24	Riccarton Do	5 years Do	In the Riccarton Church	1035		January 9 1869	Rev. C. Bowen
1844	11 January 1869	Henry Piper Hannah Webber	Henry Piper Hannah Webber 💍 1869/7776	Bachelor Spinster	Flaxdresser Servant	24 19	Ferry Road Opawa	3 years 3 mths	In the Opawa Church	1199	John Webber, Father	January 11 1869	Rev. J. G. Cholmondely
1845	11 January 1869	Thomas Walters Annie Phillips	Thomas Waters Annie Phillips 💍 1869/7830 Thomas Sanders Agnes Phillips 💍 1869/7416	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	27 21	Christchurch Do	6 years 1 year	In the Church of St. John	1217		January 21 1869	Rev. C. Bowen
1846	12 January 1869	John Ford Eliza Fullbrook	John Ford Fanny Fullbrook 💍 1869/7812	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Servant	33 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 13 mths	In the Baptist Chapel, Litchfield St.	1211		January 12 1869	Rev. J. Thornton
1847	12 January 1869	Edward O'Connor Mary Ann Clune	Edward O'Connor Mary Ann Mennix 💍 1869/7284	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 21	Christchurch	1 week 18 mths	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1029		January 12 1869	Rev. Father Chataux
1848	14 January 1869	George Stevens Mary Freeman	George Stephens Mary Freeman 💍 1869/4800	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Leeston Christchurch	4 years 5 Days	In the Avonside Church	1213		January 14 1869	Rev. J. G. Bagshaw
1849	15 January 1869	Walter Meddin Jane Russel Reese	Walter Snedden Jane Russel Reese 💍 1869/7818	Widower Spinster	Engineer Servant	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	In the House of Rev. G. Grant	1213		February 1 1869	Rev. G. Grant

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).