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 486

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
2224	21 July 1870	Lewis Radewacher Annie Martin	Lewis Rademacher Annie Martin 💍 1870/7581	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	35 24	Papanui Lincoln Road	3 years 9 months	In the House		21 July 1870	Rev. C Fraser
2225	25 July 1870	Alfred Reed Louisa Alice Hawthaw	Alfred Reed Louisa Alice Hawthorn 💍 1870/7830	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	26 17	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 6 months	In the Church Akaroa	Joseph Hawthaw, Father	24 July 1870	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2226	26 July 1870	Frank Houghton Fanny Keating	Frank Houghton Fanny Keating 💍 1870/7833	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 6 weeks	In the Church St Michael	There is no person having authority to give consent	26 July 1870	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2227	30 July 1870	William Hazelhush Isabella Maud Henderson	William Hazlehurst Isabella Maude Mary Henderson 💍 1870/7203	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	27 21	Prebbleton Christchurch	2 weeks 1 week	In the Church St Luke		30 July 1870	Rev. J. A. Lingard
2228	30 July 1870	William Minchin Susan Lougden	William Minchen Susan Longden 💍 1870/7839	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 2 months	In the Church Christ Church	George Gould, Guardian	15 August 1870	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2229	4 August 1870	James Kerr Louisa Pickering	James Kerr Louisa Pickering 💍 1870/7866	Bachelor Spinster	Millowner Servant	28 21	Woodend Christchurch	2 weeks 5 years	In the Congregational Chapel		19 August 1870	Rev. W. Habens
2230	5 August 1870	James Kerr Annie Naughty		Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	28 22	Woodend Kaiapoi	2 months 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel		5 August 1870	Rev. Father Chevrier
2231	6 August 1870	Henrich Mezenberg Martha Lougman		Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	31 30	Lincoln Avonside	3 years 6 months	In the Church St Michael		6 August 1870	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2232	9 August 1870	Henry William Lee Ann Lusk Tigers	Henry William Lee Annie Lush Vigers 💍 1870/7926	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	29 26	Christchurch Governors Bay	4 years 10 years	In the Church Lyttelton		9 August 1870	Rev. B. W. Harvey
2233	10 August 1870	Nicholas Body Margaret Parker	Nicholas Body Margaret Parker 💍 1870/7602	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	38 25	Ellesmere Do	5 years 11 months	In the House of Re C Fraser		25 August 1870	Rev. C Fraser
2234	10 August 1870	Samuel Pearson Ellen Lucas	Daniel Pearson Ellen Lucas 💍 1870/7248	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 27	Springston Do	3 years 3 months	In the Church of St John		40 August 1870	Re. C. Bryen Hoare

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).