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 472

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
2096	12 January 1870	Thomas Banks Eleanor Banks	Thomas Banks Eleanor Banks 💍 1870/7755	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Nurse	45 48	Selwyn Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the Church of St Michael, Christchurch		12 January 1870	Very Revd. Dean Jacobs
2097	13 January 1870	Daniel Slater Mary Carthew	Daniel Slater Mary Carthew 💍 1870/7758	Widower Widow	Millwright Nurse	45 54	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 5 years	In the Church of St Michael, Christchurch		13 January 1870	Very Revd. Dean Jacobs
2098	15 January 1870	John Kendrick Emeline Everest	John Kendrick Emmeline Everest 💍 1870/3902	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In the Scotch Church, Tuam Street, Christchurch		15 January 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2099	17 January 1870	Albert Pettit Rule Mary Powell	Albert Pettit Rule Mary Powell 💍 1870/7473	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 17	Springston Christchurch	2 years 3 days	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch	John Powell, Father	18 February 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2100	17 January 1870	John Richard Webb Anna Whitby	John Richard Webb Anna Whitby 💍 1870/7443	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Governess	24 28	Christchurch Ferry Road	3 days 6 years	In the Church of St. John, Ferry Road, Lyttelton		17 January 1870	Revd. J. G. Cholmondeley
2101	19 January 1870	John Bennett Isabella Dunlop	John Bennett Isabella Dunlop 💍 1870/7467	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	40 27	Templeton Christchurch	5 years 2 years	In the White Swan, Tuam Street		19 January 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2102	24 January 1870	Robert James Hile Catherine Russel	Robert James Hill Catherine Russel 💍 1870/7476	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	34 29	Avonside Avonside	9 months 1 year	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch		9 February 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2103	25 January 1870	John Sinclair Margaret Jane Rose	John Sinclair Margaret Jane Rose 💍 1870/7470	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 2 weeks	In the House of Revd. C Fraser, Christchurch		25 January 1870	Revd. C Fraser
2104	25 January 1870	Henry Bland Kirk Susan Carney	Henry Poland Kirk Suzan Karney 💍 1870/7341	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Servant	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch		25 January 1870	Revd. Father Chataignier

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).