Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 473

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2105	25 January 1870	John Robert Hudson Mary Higgins	John Robert Hudson Mary Higgins 💍 1870/7698	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Servant	30 29	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the Riccarton Church		25 January 1870	Revd. C. Bowen
2106	26 January 1870	Charles Bax Margaret Cole	Charles Bax Margaret Cole 💍 1870/7764	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	38 32	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 years	In the Church of St. Michael, Christchurch		26 January 1870	Very Revd. Dean Jacobs
2107	26 January 1870	David Jebson Annie Hooper	David Jebson Annie Hooper 💍 1870/7218	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 30	Malvern Hills Malvern Hills	7 years 2 years	In the Church of St. John, Christchurch		26 January 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare
2108	27 January 1870	Frederick Wilcox Mary Ann Lakey	Frederick Wilcox Mary Ann Lacky 💍 1870/7761	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	In the Church of St. Michael, Christchurch		27 January 1870	The Very Revd. Dean Jacobs
2109	27 January 1870	Francis Thomas Opie Catherine A'Court	Francis Thomas Opie Catherine Acourt 💍 1870/7275	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Governess	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 3 Days	In the Wesleyan Chapel, Christchurch		27 January 1870	Revd. J. Buddle
2110	31 January 1870	Charles Brown Jane Kirkwood	Charles Brown Jane Kirkwood 💍 1870/7479	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 16	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 5 years	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch	William Kirkwood, Father	15 February 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2111	1 February 1870	Colthurst Palairet Louisa Mary Slater	Colthurst Palairet Louisa Mary Slater 💍 1870/7767	Bachelor Spinster	Government Clerk	30 28	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 9 years	In the Church of St. Michael, Christchurch		17 February 1870	The Very Revd. Dean Jacobs
2112	3 February 1870	Henry Turkington Ann Hoben	Henry Turkington Ann Hoben 💍 1870/7320	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		3 February 1870	Revd. Father Chataigner
2113	10 February 1870	James Crawford Mary Slater	James Crawford Mary Slater 💍 1870/7770	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	36 24	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 9 years	In the Church of St. Michael, Christchurch		10 February 1870	The Very Revd. Dean Jacobs
2114	12 February 1870	John Johnston Lee Rachael Frankish	John Johnstone Loe Rachel Frankish 💍 1870/7314	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	38 23	Leeston Ellesmere	5 years 5 years	In the House of Aaron Frankish, Ellesmere		12 February 1870	Revd. J.G. Bluett
2115	14 February 1870	John Newton Emma Soden	John Newton Emma Soden 💍 1870/3920	Bachelor Spinster	Riveter Servant	24 28	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 5 years	In the Church of St. Luke, Christchurch		2 March 1870	Revd. E.A. Lingard

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

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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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).