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 490

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	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2567	10 December 1871	Peter Whitelaw Agnes Cavercross	Peter Whitelaw Agnes Cairncross 💍 1871/8487	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 22	Fendale Town Selwyn	1 year 8 months	Scotch Church	742		10 December 1871	Rev. C. Fraser
2568	10 December 1871	Henry John Reeves Eliza Martha Hicks	Henry John Reeves Eliza Martha Hicks 💍 1871/9279	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk House Servant	30 24	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	Avonside Church	570		10 December 1871	Rev. G. Giles
2569	19 December 1871	Peter Henry Methane Margaret Toomey	Peter Henry McShane Margaret Toomy 💍 1871/7641	Bachelor Spinster	Woolsorter Servant	34 21	Halswell Christchurch	2 years 5 years	Norman Catholic Chapel	283		19 December 1871	Rev. J. M. Ecuyer
2570	19 December 1871	Charles Ell Mary Ell	Charles Ell Mary Ell 💍 1872/6389	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	26 22	Halswell Do	1 year 1 year	In the house of Mr. Ell	742		20 December 1871	Rev. C. Fraser
2571	20 December 1871	Richard Therman Woodford Eliza Bennington	Richard Sherman Woodford Eliza Binnington 💍 1871/8484	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 19	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 Days	In the house of Rev. C Fraser	569	John Bennington, Father	20 December 1871	Rev. C Fraser
2572	22 December 1871	Thomas Brown Craig Frances Eliza Padwick	Thomas Brown Craig Frances Eliza Padwick 💍 1871/8820	Widower Widow	Accountant	30 35	Christchurch Do	13 years 3 years	In the Church of St. Michael	683		22 December 1871	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2573	22 December 1871	Meredith Wilson Mary Morrow	Meredith Wilson Mary Morrow 💍 1872/6425	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 25	Christchurch Do	3 mths 5 years	In the Westead Church	72/1607		22 December 1871	Rev. C. Fraser
2574	27 December 1871	Charles Hile Maria Hyde	Charles Hill Maria Hyde 💍 1871/8490	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	20 21	Christchurch Do	3 Days 5 Days	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	571		27 December 1871	Rev. C. Fraser
2575	29 December 1871	Robert McK Knight Eliza Pennell Butcher	Robert McKnight Eliza Pennell Butcher 💍 1871/9081	Bachelor Spinster	Bailiff of Court	30 19	Christchurch Do	6 years 19 years	In the Church of St. John	71/72		29 December 1871	Rev. G. Bailey
2576	30 December 1871	William Montague Hossack Jessie Hossack	William Montague Sims Jessie Hossack 💍 1872/6422	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 17	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	In the House of Mr. Hossack	72/1604	Agnes Hossack, Mother	30 December 1871	Rev. C. Fraser
2577	30 December 1871	Michael Kennedy Margaret Horrigan	Michael Kennedy Margaret Horrigan 💍 1871/7653	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	35 30	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	287		30 December 1871	Rev. J. M. Ecuyer

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).