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 489

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	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2257	20 September 1870	Reuben Claridge Elizabeth Muffell	Reuben Claridge Elizabeth Duffell 💍 1870/7611	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	20 20	Papauni Do	10 years 10 years	In the Scotch Church		Thomas Claridge, Father	20 September 1870	Rev. C. Laser
2258	26 September 1870	Thomas Newcombe Ann Byrnes	Thomas Donohue Ann Byrns 💍 1870/7398	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	34 28	Leeston Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel			26 September 1870	Rev. Father Chervier
2259	26 September 1870	Richard Pitkin Elizabeth Emerson	Richard Pelkin Elizabeth Emerson 💍 1870/7617	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	28 34	Courtenay Do	2 years 2 years	In the House of R. C. Laser			26 September 1870	Rev. C. Laser
2260	26 September 1870	Samuel Phelpard Neale Elizabeth Isabella Bradley	Samuel Sheppard Noall Elizabeth Isabella Bradley 💍 1870/7389	Widower Spinster	Accountant	38 23	Christchurch Do	6 years 8 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel			26 September 1870	Rev. Father Chervier
2261	27 September 1870	William Wright Newright Grace Grantham	William Bright Allwright Grace Grantham 💍 1870/7251	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 20	Christchurch Do	5 years 11 years	In the Church of St. John		Thomas Grantham, Father	27 September 1870
2262	28 September 1870	William Jeffree Julia Pearce	William Jeffree Julia Pearce 💍 1870/7851 William Rowe Hannah Pearce 💍 1870/5520	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Milliner	32 23	Christchurch Riccarton	4 years 9 months	In the Church of St. Michael			28 September 1870	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2263	28 September 1870	John Albert Harris Mary Ann Carter	John Albert Harris Mary Ann Carter 💍 1870/7215	Bachelor Spinster	Maltster Servant	29 24	Christchurch Do	6 months 10 years	In the Church of St. Luke	713/508		28 September 1870	Rev. C. N. Lingard
2264	28 September 1870	Morgan Quail Mary Connolly	Morgan Quirk Mary Connolly 💍 1870/7386	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 30	Selwyn Mauds Reach	3 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel			28 September 1870	Rev. Father Chervier
2265	30 September 1870	George Cresswell Charlotte Parrott	George Cresswell Charlotte Barrett 💍 1870/7287	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Dressmaker	23 21	Christchurch Springfield Road	20 years 2 years	In the House of J. Aldred			30 September 1870	Rev. J. Aldred

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).