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 474

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
2441	16 June 1871	William Souter Louisa Philip	William Souter Louisa Phillips 💍 1871/6819	Bachelor Widow	Schoolmaster	35 32	Christchurch Do	5 Days 2 weeks	the Church of St John	71/999		16 June 1871	Rev D Bailey
2442	17 June 1871	Frank Hodge Louisa Ann Day	Frank Hodge Priest Louisa Ann Day 💍 1871/7575	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 17	Christchurch Ferry Road	3 Days 1 week	the Heathcote Church	M 72/261	Selina Day, Mother	17 June 1871	Rev S Cholmondeley
2443	17 June 1871	John Maddison Sarah Jane Herbert	John Maddison Sarah Jane Herbert 💍 1871/8088	Widower Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	41 26	Templeton Do	9 Years 2 years	the Templeton Church	71/431		17 June 1871	Rev E Paige
2444	19 June 1871	James Tait Jane Lovews	James Thin Jane Creuz 💍 1871/5868 James Scott Jane Lorimer 💍 1871/8007	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	34 32	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 6 weeks	In the House of Mr Bruce, Littlefield Street	M 71/672		19 June 1871	The Very Rev Dean Jacobs
2445	19 June 1871	Thomas Anderson Martha Seatchele	Thomas Anderson Martha Satchwell 💍 1871/5655 Anders Anderson Martha Lovell 💍 1871/4896	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Servant	30 21	Christchurch Do	4 years 1 year	In the Church of St Michael	M 71/599		19 June 1871	[UNCLEAR]
2446	26 June 1871	James Bhind Ann Wiseman	James Rhind Ann Wiseman 💍 1871/8361	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 22	Christchurch Do	1 week 6 mths	In the Scotch Church, Tuam Street	M 72/527		26 June 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).