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 479

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1870

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
2152	1 April 1870	William Taylor Ann Hackett	William Taylor Annie Hackett 💍 1870/7233	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	23 23	Papanui Road Madras Road	3 weeks 3 weeks	Church of St Philip	184/12		1 April 1870	Rev C Bryen Hoare
2153	4 April 1870	Michael Waters Mary Fox	Michael Waters Mary Cox 💍 1870/7515	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 5 months	In the House of Rev C Fraser			4 April 1870	Rev C Fraser
2154	4 April 1870	William Rose McKenzie Lilian Frances Harris	William Rose McKenzie Lillian Frances Harris 💍 1870/7542	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housekeeper	28 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In the House of Mr C Fraser			4 April 1870	Rev C Fraser
2155	4 April 1870	John Augustus Morgan Eliza Jane Atkinson		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 25	Malvern Hills Christchurch	7 years 12 years	In the Church of St Michael			4 April 1870	Very Rev Dean Jacobs
2156	5 April 1870	Alec Mullender Frederick M Shave		Widower Bachelor	Labourer	24 34	Addington Christchurch	6 years 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel			5 April 1870	Rev Lather Chevvins
2157	8 April 1870	Joseph Deans Mary Birmingham	Joseph Evans Mary Ann Birmingham 💍 1870/7704	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 21	Kowai Pass Riccarton	4 years 4 months	In the Riccarton Church			8 April 1870	Rev. C Bowen
2158	9 April 1870	Thomas Lawshaw Amelia Hogan	Thomas Earnshaw Amelia Hoggan 💍 1870/7518	Widower Widow	Farmer	57 36	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 12 years	In the House of Rev C Fraser			9 April 1870	Rev C Fraser
2159	11 April 1870	William Money Emily Eliza Asher	William Rooney Emily Eliza Asher 💍 1870/7236	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 weeks 10 months	In the Church of St John			11 April 1870	Rev C Brien Hoare
2160	14 April 1870	James Clunie Wilkin Mary Grey	James Clunie Wilkie Mary Grey 💍 1870/7887	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 20	Christchurch Lyttelton	6 years 1 month	In the Church of Holy Trinity Lyttelton		Prudentia Grey, Mother	14 April 1870	Rev Francis Knowles
2161	14 April 1870	Albert Chapman Sarah Deavole	Albert Chapman Sarah Deavolle 💍 1870/7791	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 1 week	In the Church of St Michael			14 April 1870	Very Rev Dean Jacobs
2162	16 April 1870	George W Williams Phillis Jonfrida Marchant	George McWilliams Phillis Torfrida Marchant 💍 1870/7521	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist Milliner	24 20	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 3 years	In the Scotch Church		There is no person in the Colony having power to give consent	16 April 1870	Rev C Laser

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 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).