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 478

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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	12 October 1869	James Cunningham Emily M. Williams	James Cunningham Emily McWilliams 💍 1869/7542 James Cunningham Elizabeth McNamara 💍 1869/8682	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 19	Christchurch do	3 years 5 years	In the Presbyterian Church	1117	John M. Williams, Father	12 October 1869	Rev. C. Fraser
152	16 October 1869	Frederick Blackmore Caroline Barnes	Frederick Blackmore Caroline Barnes 💍 1869/7551	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	25 18	Papawai do	2 mths 10 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	1120	Thomas Barnes, Father	16 October 1869	Rev. C. Fraser
153	22 October 1869	William Longmuir Orr Sarah Jane Burnett	William Longmuir Orr Sarah Jane Pannett 💍 1869/7593	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Selwyn Forks Springston	1 year 6 years	In the Scotch Church	1134		22 October 1869	Rev. J. Campbell
154	25 October 1869	Louis Joseph Henry Jemima Eliza Payne	Joseph Henry Sluis Jemima Eliza Payne 💍 1869/7692	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 34	Lincoln Road Lincoln Road	1 week 3 years	In the Church of St. Michael	1171		9 November 1869	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
155	27 October 1869	Robert Ross Mary Beckett	Robert Ross Mary Beckett 💍 1869/7560	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman Dressmaker	24 21	Lincoln Christchurch	2 years 8 mths	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	1123		27 October 1869	Rev. C. Fraser
156	27 October 1869	George Thomas Bloor Ellen Murphy	George Thomas Bloor Ellen Murphy 💍 1869/7875	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 22	Christchurch Rangiora	3 Days 2 weeks	In the Church of St. John Christchurch	1232		27 October 1869	Rev. C. Bryen Hoare
157	28 October 1869	William Cooper Eliza Jane Moffat	William Cooper Eliza Jane Moffat 💍 1869/7554	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 26	Leeston Do	4 years 1 year	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	1121		28 October 1869	Rev. C. Fraser
158	28 October 1869	John Sullivan Elizabeth Vincent	John Sullivan Elizabeth Vincent 💍 1869/7359	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	30 18	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1054	Duncan Baker, Guardian	28 October 1869	Rev. Father Chataigner
159	6 November 1869	William Wilson Sarah Revou	William Wilson Sarah Herron 💍 1869/7557 William Wilson Catherine Jane Thompson 💍 1869/9105	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 26	North Road Christchurch	13 years 1 year	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	1122		6 November 1869	Rev. C. Fraser

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).