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 474

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
2116	15 February 1870	John Thomas Radford Christina M'Queen	John Thomas Radford Christina McQueen 💍 1870/7482	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 19	Ellesmere Do	2 weeks 2 months	In the House of Mr John Hart	Catherine Woester, mother	15 February 1870	Rev C Fraser
2117	16 February 1870	William Murdin Sarah Pearson	William Murdin Sarah Pierson 💍 1870/7221	Bachelor Spinster	Dairy farmer Servant	45 30	Christchurch Do	3 days 6 months	In the church of St John		16 February 1870	Rev CE Bryen Hoare
2118	18 February 1870	George Whittaker Seraphim Eliza Griffith		Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 5 months	In the church of St Luke		18 February 1870	Rev EA Lingard
2119	21 February 1870	Robert Musson Eliza Warren	Robert Musson Eliza Warren 💍 1870/7224	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 23	Christchurch Prebbleton	3 days 2 years	In the church of Oxford		21 February 1870	Rev CE Bryen Hoare
2120	24 February 1870	Thomas Cusdin Salome Knowler	Thomas Cusdin Eliza Salome Knowles 💍 1870/7485	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	21 21	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	In the House of Mr C Fraser		24 February 1870	Rev C Fraser
2121	25 February 1870	Alexander Jackson Eliza Jane Mullin	Alexander Jackson Eliza Jane Mullin 💍 1870/7335	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 22	Lincoln Road Do	13 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Chapel		14 March 1870	Rev Father Chataigne
2122	25 February 1870	Henry Maginius Elisabeth Ruddock	William Henry Maginness Elizabeth Ruddock 💍 1870/7773	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 22	Ellesmere Christchurch	2 years 4 months	In the Church of St Michael		25 February 1870	The Very Rev Dean Jacobs
2123	25 February 1870	Andrew William Harrison Barbara Larwork	Andrew William Harrison Barbara Larnock 💍 1870/7491	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	30 24	Christchurch Do	1 week 4 days	In the House of Mr C Fraser		25 February 1870	Rev C Fraser
2124	26 February 1870	Samuel Scott Emily Ness	Samuel Scott Emily Ness 💍 1870/7488	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 26	Leeston Do	1 week 1 week	In the House of Mr C Fraser		26 February 1870	Rev C Fraser
2125	26 February 1870	Henry Jepps Elizabeth Roger	Henry Jepps Elizabeth Roser 💍 1870/7776	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 25	Christchurch Do	5 days 5 days	In the Barracks		26 February 1870	Rev E A Lingard
2126	28 February 1870	John Hood Sarah Berriman	John Hood Sarah Berriman 💍 1870/7494	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	28 26	Christchurch Do	4 months 2 years	In the House of Mr C Fraser		28 February 1870	Rev 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 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).