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 472

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
151	29 July 1869	Henry William Dumuid Mary Elizabeth Gigg	Henry William Dunn Mary Elizabeth Giggs 💍 1869/9624	Bachelor Widow	Publican	28 27	Riccarton Do	2 years 13 years	Riccarton Church	1839		29 July 1869	Rev. C. Bowen
152	29 July 1869	John Ardelle Ellen Birmingham	John Ardell Ellen Birmingham 💍 1869/7497	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	28 30	Christchurch Do	4 years 14 years	In the house of Mrs Birmingham	1102		29 July 1869	Rev. C. Fraser
153	30 July 1869	James Holland Harriet Sellars	Samuel Holland Harriet Sellars 💍 1869/7500	Bachelor Spinster	Hatter	25 18	Christchurch Do	8 mths 5 years	Smiths. In the house of Mr C Fraser	1103	John Sellars, Father	30 July 1869	Rev. C Fraser
154	2 August 1869	John George Bole Eleanor Lavinia Perrott	John George Bell Eleanor Lavinia Perrott 💍 1869/7503	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	32 21	Christchurch Do	3 Days 2 mths	In the House of Thomas Brownlee. Peterborough Street	1104		2 August 1869	Rev. C Fraser
155	2 August 1869	Samuel Hight Mary Ryan	Samuel Hight Mary Ryan 💍 1869/7344 Patrick Flannigan Mary Ryan 💍 1869/8655 Matthew Dormer Mary Ryan 💍 1869/8691	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 23	Lincoln Road do	1 year 8 mths	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1049		2 August 1869	[UNCLEAR]
156	2 August 1869	Edward John Densils Janny Reynolds	Edward John Densil Joblin Fanny Reynolds 💍 1869/7797	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	24 22	Ferry Road Do	1 year 1 mth	In the Opawa Church	1201		2 August 1869	Rev. J. G. Cholmondeley
157	4 August 1869	Jonathan Kay Sarah Walker	Jonathan Kay Sarah Walker 💍 1869/7506	Widower Widow	Miner	32 34	Christchurch Do	1 year 6 years	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	1115		4 August 1869	Rev. C Fraser
158	4 August 1869	John Pugh Mary Jane Boniface	John Pugh Mary Jane Boamface 💍 1869/7860	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	25 21	Christchurch Do	3 years 12 years	In the Phillipston Church	1227		19 August 1869	The Very Rev. Henry Jacobs
159	5 August 1869	John Skelton Jane Ellen Pallamountain	John Skelton Grace Ellen Palamountain 💍 1869/7509	Widower Widow	Farmer	38 28	Springston Do	6 years 3 mths	In the House of Mr C Fraser	1106		5 August 1869	Rev. C Fraser

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).