Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 463

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1871

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2334	2 January 1871	George Hefford Anna Levoss	George Hefford Anna Cross 💍 1871/5736	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the House of Mr Napier, Papanni Road	M 71/627		2 January 1871	Rev. C Fraser
2335	2 January 1871	Charles Berg Eliza Seales	Charles Berg Eliza Seales 💍 1871/5739	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	29 21	Addington Addington	1 year 9 mths	In the House of Smiths, Christchurch	M 71/628		2 January 1871	Rev. C Fraser
2336	3 January 1871	George Hathaway Jane Redfern	George Hathaway Jane Redfern 💍 1871/5742	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 3 mths	In the Church, Christchurch	M 71/629		3 January 1871	Rev. C Fraser
2337	4 January 1871	George Mason Elizabeth Byron	George Mason Elizabeth Byron 💍 1871/9078	Bachelor Spinster	Cattledriver Servant	33 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church Grey River of St John	71/1771		4 January 1871	Rev. A Bryen Hoare
2338	5 January 1871	John Hills Catherine Houghton	John Hills Catherine Houghton 💍 1871/5631	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the Church of St Michael, Christchurch	M 71/591	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs	5 January 1871	There is no person having authority
2339	7 January 1871	Robert McLean Charlotte Kennedy	Robert McLean Charlotte Kennedy 💍 1871/5679	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 30	Walswell Walswell	2 years 1 1/2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Christchurch	M 71/607		9 January 1871	Rev. Father Cherwier
2340	10 January 1871	Walter William Brighton Elizabeth Morshead	Walter William Brighton Elizabeth Moorshead 💍 1871/5748	Bachelor Widow	Saddler Dressmaker	21 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 2 years	In the House of Rev. C Fraser, Christchurch	M 71/631		10 January 1871	Rev. C Fraser
2341	10 January 1871	Drummond Withers Mary Jane Rickard	Drummond Withers Mary Jane Rickard 💍 1871/5745	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 21	Springston Christchurch	7 years 3 months	In the House of Rev. C Fraser, Christchurch	M 71/630		10 January 1871	Rev. C Fraser
2342	10 January 1871	Robert Parker Emma Martin	Robert Parker Emma Martin 💍 1871/9084	Bachelor Spinster	Professor of Music	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 12 Days	In the Church of St John, Christchurch	71/1773		10 January 1871	Rev. A Bryen Hoare
2343	12 January 1871	James Moores Mary Beattie	James Moore Mary Beattie 💍 1871/5883	Bachelor Spinster	Servant Servant	25 23	Selwyn Selwyn	5 years 1 year	In the Buruham Church	M 71/96		12 January 1871	Rev. J Peddie
2344	13 January 1871	James Niven Agnes Sproule	James Nivan Agnes Sprout 💍 1871/5751	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 28	Southbridge Southbridge	4 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. C Fraser, Christchurch	M 71/632		13 January 1871	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).