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 493

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1871

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
2285	5 November 1870	Thomas Painter Annie Hellewell	Thomas Painter Annie Hellewell 💍 1870/7719	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 24	Halswell Halswell	4 years 6 months	In the Halswell Church		22 November 1870	Revd. C. Bowen
2286	5 November 1870	Thomas Wilson Mary Lunn	Thomas Wilson Mary Lunn 💍 1870/7716	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 20	Riccarton Riccarton	5 years 5 years	In the Riccarton Church	William Lunn, father	5 November 1870	Revd. C. Bowen
2287	5 November 1870	Julius Mendelson Carolina Schwartz	Julius Mendelson Carolina Schwartz 💍 1870/7872	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	34 19	Timaru Christchurch	6 years 4 years	In the Hebrew Synagogue, Christchurch	Jacob Schwartz, Father	5 November 1870	Revd. Isaac Zachariah
2288	5 November 1870	William Veitch Mary Jane Foster	William Veitch Mary Jane Foster 💍 1870/7260	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 21	Papanui Papanui	2 years 3 years	In the Church of St. John, Christchurch		5 November 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare
2289	7 November 1870	John Fay Ann Doyle	John Fay Ann Doyle 💍 1870/7410	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 27	Leeston Heathcote	4 years 2 years	The Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		7 November 1870	Revd. Father Chervier
2290	7 November 1870	Thomas Ewen Lawrence Mary Johnston	Thomas Ewen Lawrence Mary Johnston 💍 1870/7695	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Servant	35 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 mths 2 years	In the Avonside Church		7 November 1870	Revd. G. Cotterill
2291	8 November 1870	John Thompson Maria Blunt	John Thomson Maria Blunt 💍 1870/7644	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 7 years	In the Scotch Church, Tuam Street	William Blunt, Father	8 November 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2292	9 November 1870	William Scoon Elizabeth Mawson	William Scoon Elizabeth Mawson 💍 1870/7257	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Ellesmere Ellesmere	1 year 8 years	In the Church of St. John, Christchurch		9 November 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare
2293	9 November 1870	John Worgan Wormald Jane Caldwell	John Worgan Wormald Jane Caldwell 💍 1870/7263	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 4 years	In the Church of St. John, Christchurch	Sarah Caldwell, Mother	9 November 1870	Revd. O Bryen Hoare
2294	9 November 1870	Charles Alexander Arthur Jane Gale	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 26	Papanui Papanui	1 year 1 year	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch		9 November 1870	Revd. C. Fraser
2295	10 November 1870	Charles Sweet Olliver Mary Ann Nicholas	Charles Sweet Olliver Mary Ann Nicholas 💍 1870/7296	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman Servant	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Wesleyan Chapel, Durham Street	There is no person having authority to give Consent	10 November 1870	Revd. W. Kirk

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).