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 471

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
1986	13 July 1869	Robert Wilson Margaret Moffat	Robert Wilson Margaret Moffat 💍 1869/7479	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	North Road Christchurch	1/2 year 2 years	In the house of Rev. C Fraser	1096		13 July 1869	Rev. C Fraser
1987	15 July 1869	William New Bridget Redman	William Frere Bridget Redman 💍 1869/7341	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Servant	24 23	Papanui Road Christchurch	4 Days 3 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1048		15 July 1869	Rev Father Ch
1988	15 July 1869	Donald Ferguson Mary Ann Mervyn	Donald Ferguson Mary Ann Wickham 💍 1869/7482 Donald Ferguson Mary Heggie 💍 1869/4044	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	33 28	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1097		15 July 1869	Rev C Fraser
1989	19 July 1869	Thomas Henry Bond Emily Roberts	Thomas Henry Bone Emily Roberts 💍 1869/7485	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	34 24	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1098		19 July 1869	Rev. C Fraser
1990	19 July 1869	William Newsom Sarah Hargood	Jonathan William Newson Sarah Hargood 💍 1869/7794	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	27 19	Christchurch Ferry Road	6 years 10 years	In the Church of St John	1205	Sarah Hargood, Mother	19 July 1869	Rev J C Earle
1991	21 July 1869	Manwah Peach Mary Moffat	Manoah Reach Mary Moffat 💍 1869/7488	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Christchurch Halswell	10 Days 2 years	In the House of the Rev - C Fraser	1099	John Moffat, Father	21 July 1869	Rev C Fraser
1992	22 July 1869	Frederich Edward Helen Blake Anderson Hunter		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Dressmaker	29 20	Christchurch Do	1 week 1/2 year	In the Scotch Church	1100	Thomas Anderson, Father	22 July 1869	Rev - C H
1993	23 July 1869	William James Birch Eliza McBride	William James Birch Eliza McBride 💍 1869/7494	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Servant	23 21	Christchurch Do	1 year 3 years	In The House of Rev. C Fraser	1101		23 July 1869	Rev C Fraser
1994	28 July 1869	Thomas Brass Margaret Smith	Thomas Brass Margaret Smith 💍 1869/7764 Thomas White Mary Smith 💍 1869/5874	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	30 25	Christchurch Hereford Street	5 years 1 week	In the House of Mr Brass	1105		28 July 1869	Rev. Mr Brass

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).