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 480

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
2490	30 August 1871	Robert Wairden Piris Jessie Alice	Robert Davidson Firie Jessie Abel 💍 1871/8412	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	24 23	Christchurch Do	2 years 4 Days	In the House of Rd. C. Fraser	545		13 September 1871	Rd. C. Fraser
2491	1 September 1871	William McIver Jessie Holmes	William Steven Jessie Davidson 💍 1871/8604 William Moss Jessie Robertson 💍 1871/6342	Widower Spinster	Butcher	29 20	Christchurch North Road	4 years 2 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	688	David Patchett, Father	1 October 1871	Rev. W. Keale
2492	2 September 1871	Frederick Palmer Emma Craigie	Frederick Palmer Emma Craigie 💍 1871/5673	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	22 35	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 years	In the Church of P. Michael	11/65		2 October 1871	The Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2493	2 September 1871	John Ashborne Jessie Grant	John Osborne Jessie Grant McDougall 💍 1871/8403	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	32 25	Christchurch Do	9 years 10 Days	In the House of Rd. C. Fraser	541		4 September 1871	Rd. C. Fraser
2494	4 September 1871	Thomas Mc. Grandal Jane Campbell	Thomas McGrandel Jane Campbell 💍 1871/7617 Thomas McGrundel Jane Campbell 💍 1871/5874 Thomas Peacock Mary Campbell 💍 1871/4056	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 21	Ferry Road Addington	3 months 2 years	In the Presbyterian Church	73/275		24 September 1871	J. A. Douglas
2495	6 September 1871	Thomas Smith Nish Sellers	Thomas Smith Dinah Sellars 💍 1871/8799	Widower Widow	Labourer Servant	38 32	Addington Do	2 weeks 3 years	In the Wesleyan Church	42		20 September 1871	Rev. N. R. Fitchett
2496	7 September 1871	Edwin Henry Brooker Louisa Caroline Potter	Edwin Henry Brooker Louisa Caroline Potter 💍 1871/5892	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Christchurch Do	20 years 2 years	In the House of Mr. Norman	11/679		2 September 1871	Rev. J. Habens
2497	9 September 1871	Edwin Britton Lydia Salter	Edwin Britton Lydia Salter 💍 1871/3816	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 22	Christchurch Do	1½ years 2 months	In the House of Rd. C. Fraser	542		7 September 1871	Rd. C. Fraser
2498	8 September 1871	George Miller Robinson Rose Kelso	George Miller Robinson Rose Kelso 💍 1871/8427	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	32 28	Christchurch Casam Street	5 years 9 years	In the Scotch Church	550		8 September 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).