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 491

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
2222	19 July 1870	John Gowin Elizabeth Brown	[No matching marriage registration has been located]									C Fraser
2255	17 September 1870	John Nelson Margaret Archibald	John Nelson Margaret Archibald 💍 1870/7626							James Archibald, Father	3 October 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2261	27 September 1870	William Wright Allwright Grace Grantham	William Bright Allwright Grace Grantham 💍 1870/7251							Thomas Grantham, Father	12 October 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare
2266	1 October 1870	Bartholomew Spain Jane Jamieson	Bartholomew Spain Jane Jamieson 💍 1870/7623	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 4 years	In the House of Mr Walker, Tuam Street		1 October 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2267	3 October 1870	William Ingram Ballinger Lucy Madge Ada Poore	William Ingram Ballinger Lucy Madge Ada Poore 💍 1870/7869	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dressmaker	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 7 years	In the House of Mr Ballinger, Ferry Road		3 October 1870	Revd. J Halums
2268	3 October 1870	William Henry Dutton Emma Craythorne	William Henry Dutton Emma Craythorne 💍 1870/7629	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 6 weeks	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch		3 Ocober 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2269	4 October 1870	Andrew Nelson Mary Ann Matilda Doyle	Andrew Nelson Mary Ann Matilda Doyle 💍 1870/7440	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 20	Leeston Leeston	2 years 1 year	In the House of Revd. J Campbell, Christchurch	Jane Doyle, Mother	4 October 1870	Revd. J. Campbell
2270	5 October 1870	Edward McDermott Anna Maria Boyce	Edward McDermott Anna Maria Boyce 💍 1870/7632	Widower Widow	Carpenter Servant	42 37	St Albans St Albans	1 year 6 years	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch		5 October 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2271	10 October 1870	John Coward Eliza Hulford	John Coward Eliza Hulford 💍 1870/7692	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Dressmaker	30 35	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the Avonside Church		25 October 1870	Revd. G Cotterill
2272	13 October 1870	Benard Mora Mary Flint	Bernard Mora Mary Flynn 💍 1870/7392	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	31 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		13 October 1870	Revd. Father Chervier
2273	14 October 1870	Richard Lowman Elizabeth Dewe	Richard Lowman Elizabeth Dewe 💍 1870/7254	Bachelor Spinster	Manager of Flax Mill Servant	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 9 mths	In the Church of St. John, Christchurch		29 October 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).