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 458

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
151	15 January 1869	James Dingwall Margaret Weir	James Dingwall Margaret Weir 💍 1869/7392	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 25	Tolwyn St. Albans	3 years 1 month	In the House of P. Frater	1066		15 February 1869	Rev. L. Isitt
152	18 January 1869	James Harding Amelia Round	James Harding Amelia Round 💍 1869/7785	Bachelor Spinster	Waterman Servant	22 19	Christchurch Ferry Road	1 week 5 years	In the Church	1168	Elijah Round, Father	19 February 1869	Rev. G. Cholmondeley
153	18 January 1869	John Jones Margaret Riordan	John Jones Margaret Riordan 💍 1869/7293	Bachelor Spinster	Smith Innkeeper	32 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1032		18 February 1869	Rev. Father Chataigner
154	18 January 1869	The Wakehau Parata Sarah Green	John Wakeham Partridge Sarah Green 💍 1869/7833	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 33	Avonside Christchurch	5 years 3 years	In the Church	1218		4 March 1869	Rev. Owen Hoare
155	19 February 1869	Charles Remington Mary Ann Sutherland	Charles Rimmington Mary Ann Sutherland 💍 1869/7821	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 30	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 year	In the House of J. G. Grant	1214		19 February 1869	Rev. J. G. Grant
156	23 February 1869	Charles Cooper Ellen Rodger	Charles Cooper Ellen Charlotte Rogers 💍 1869/7650	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	27 19	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 months	In the Church of St. Michael	1155	Richard Rodger, Father	10 March 1869	The Very Rev Dean Jacobs
157	23 February 1869	William Bright Elizabeth O'Hara	William Robert Bright Elizabeth O'Hara 💍 1869/7644	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Servant	21 18	Christchurch Do	6 years 2 years	In the Church of St. Michael	1153	William O'Hara, Father	23 February 1869	The Very Rev Dean Jacobs
158	24 February 1869	Richard Burwood Susan Green	Richard Offwood Susan Green 💍 1869/7761	Widower Widow	Carrier	37 31	Christchurch Ferry Road	10 years 9 years	In the Congregational Chapel	1194		12 March 1869	Rev. M. J. Habens
159	24 February 1869	Robert Whitelaw Mary Ann Allen	Robert Whitelaw Mary Ann Allen 💍 1869/7884 Robert Walker Mary Allen 💍 1869/6051	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	25 22	Christchurch Do	6 years 14 years	In the House of Robert Whitelaw	1235		24 February 1869	Rev R. Barrie

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).