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 464

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Apr - Jun

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
151	21 April 1869	Thomas Leuum Jane Rossie	Thomas Lennon Jane Doran 💍 1869/7662	Bachelor Spinster	Ropemaker Servant	26 28	Christchurch Do	1 year 2 years	In the Church of St Michael	1159	21 April 1869	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
152	21 April 1869	Louis Langeshwards Grace Holden	Louis Langeshwardt Grace Stodden 💍 1869/3955	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 31	Ashbridge Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1075	22 April 1869	Rev. C Fraser
153	27 April 1869	James Flynn Eliza Ward	James Flynn Eliza Ward 💍 1869/7419	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housekeeper	24 28	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1076	27 April 1869	Rev. C Fraser
154	27 April 1869	Henry Poninghaud Annie Monaghan	Henry Pininghause Annie Monaghan 💍 1869/7425	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 21	Papanui Do	2 years 6 months	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1078	27 April 1869	Rev. C Fraser
155	27 April 1869	Edwin Wadman Emma Keele	Edwin Wadman Emma Keete 💍 1869/7848	Bachelor Widow	Housekeeper	25 29	Papanui Christchurch	3 years 6 months	In the Free Church	1223	27 April 1869	Rev. A. Bevan
156	28 April 1869	John Hefford Esther Godfrey	John Hefford Esther Godfrey 💍 1869/7422	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 22	Selwyn Do	1 year 6 months	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1097	28 April 1869	Rev. C Fraser
157	28 April 1869	Peter Keller Elizabeth Martha Watts	Peter Keller Elizabeth Martha Watts 💍 1869/7731	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Dressmaker	37 26	Christchurch Do	14 years 1.5 months	In the Church of St Luke	1184	28 April 1869	Rev. E.A. Lingard
158	30 April 1869	Edward Cephas John Stevens Maria Whitcombe	Edward Cephas John Stevens Maria Whitcombe 💍 1869/9588	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman	31 36	Christchurch Do	10 years 2 years	In the Riccarton Church	1825	1 May 1869	Rev. C Bowen
159	17 May 1869	James Johnson Anna Harriet Bennett	James Johnson Anna Harriet Bennett 💍 1869/7737	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Christchurch Do	3 weeks 8 months	In the Church of St Luke	1186	20 May 1869	Rev. E.A. Lingard

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).