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 485

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
2210	22 June 1870	Richard Vincent Ellen Margaret Cullen	Richard Vincent Ellen Margaret Cullen 💍 1870/7743								7 July 1870	W. Parkerson Jnr.
2214	2 July 1870	Robert Magson Catherine McPhail	Robert Magson Catherine MacPhail 💍 1870/7569	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	Selwyn Selwyn	2 years 5 years	In the House of Revd. C. Fraser Christchurch	Alexander McPhail, father	2 July 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2215	2 July 1870	John William Bean Margaret Holland	John William Bean Margaret Holland 💍 1870/7374	Widower Spinster	Butcher Milliner	31 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		2 July 1870	Revd. Father Chervier
2216	4 July 1870	John Humphreys Sarah Elizabeth Davies	John Humphreys Sarah Elizabeth Davies 💍 1870/7572	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 20	Tai Tapu Tai Tapu	6 years 8 years	In the House of Revd. C. Fraser Christchurch	Ann Davis, mother	4 July 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2217	11 July 1870	Joseph Loney Ann Emma Simmons	Joseph Loney Ann Emma Simmons 💍 1870/7452	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 4 years	In the Ferry Road Church	Henry Simmons, father	1 August 1870	Revd. G. Cholmondeley
2218	13 July 1870	William Peterson Davie Rose Alice Poole	William Peterson Davie Rose Alice Poole 💍 1870/7200	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	41 34	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 1 year	In the Church of St. Luke, Christchurch		13 July 1870	Revd. E. A. Lingard
2219	15 July 1870	Hugh Smith Isabella Grey	Hugh Smith Isabella Gray 💍 1870/7575	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 21	Southbridge Christchurch	4 years 3 years	In the House of Revd. C. Fraser Christchurch		15 July 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2220	17 July 1870	William Robertson Wilhelmina Mason	William Robertson Wilhelmina Mason 💍 1870/7578	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 3 Days	In the House of Miss Brown, Colombo Street North		17 July 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2221	19 July 1870	James Minchen Bridget Kelly	James Machen Bridget Kelly 💍 1870/7245	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 7 weeks	In the Church of St. John, Christchurch		19 July 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare
2222	19 July 1870	John Gowin Elizabeth Brown	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	Lincoln Road Lincoln Road	2 years 3 months	In the House of Revd. C. Fraser Christchurch
2223	19 July 1870	William de Blacquiere Compton Elizabeth Lake	William de Blacquiere Compton Elizabeth Lake 💍 1870/7584	Bachelor Spinster	Ferryman	25 19	Rakaia Rakaia	2 years 4 years	In the House of Mr. Lake, North Rakaia	Charles Lake, father	19 July 1870	Revd. C. Fraser

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).