Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 431

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
151	December 19th 1871	Charles Ell Mary Ell	Charles Ell Mary Ell 💍 1872/6389	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Housekeeper	26 22	Halswell Do	1 year	In the House of mr. Ell	72/1592		January 3rd 1872	Rev. J. Habens
152	January 1st 1872	Edward Salisbury Maria [UNCLEAR]	Edward Salisbury Maria Hann 💍 1872/6134	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Cashmere	4 mnths	In the Church of St. Luke			January 23rd 1872	Rev. E.A. Lingard
153	January 1st 1872	John Hill Emma Amelia Cooper	John Hill Emma Amelia Cooper 💍 1872/9383	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Dressmaker	23 21	Papanui Christchurch	2 years 3 years	In the Church of Riccarton	72/1508		January 17th 1872	Rev. C. Bowen
154	January 2nd 1872	Charles [UNCLEAR] Mary Rippingale	Charles Stokes Mary Rippingale 💍 1872/8891	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	Selwyn Do	8 months	In the Schoolhouse Selwyn	72/2250	Edward Rippingale Father	January 24th 1872	Rev. J. Habens
155	January 3rd 1872	William Karles Mary Barr	William Havers Mary Barr 💍 1872/8858	Widower Widow	Gardener Housekeeper	60 45	Cemetery Do	2 years	In the Wesleyan Church	72/2238		January 17th 1872	Rev. J. Fletcher
156	January 3rd 1872	William Nickley Sandy Ellen Maria Dighton		Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	20 19	Christchurch Do	2 years	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1524	Samuel Grundy Father Ellen Caroline Dighton Mother	January 18th 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
157	January 9th 1872	William Edward Ward Mary Ann Larkman	William Edward Ward Sarah Mary Agnes Larkman 💍 1872/6428	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Servant	31 25	Christchurch Do	1 week	In the House of mr. Stewart	72/1608		January 24th 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
158	January 9th 1872	Alexander Alfred Smith Barbara [UNCLEAR]	Alexander Alfred Smith Barbara Esselbarn 💍 1872/6431	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	37 22	Fendale Town Papanui	6 years 1 year	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	72/1620		January 25th 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
159	January 11th 1872	George Charles Rivers Marion Webb	George Charles Rivers Marian Webb 💍 1872/6179	Bachelor Widow	Accountant	31 25	Christchurch Do	3 Days	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1523		January [UNCLEAR] 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
160	January 12th 1872	James Knight Watts Mary Jane McIlroy		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32	Christchurch Do	9 years	In the House of Rev. A.F. Douglas	72/68	Samuel McIlroy Father	January [UNCLEAR] 1872	[UNCLEAR]
161	January 13th 1872	John Carpenter Michael [UNCLEAR]	John Carpenter Rachel Benger 💍 1872/6188	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	19 22	Christchurch Do	4 years	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1526		January [UNCLEAR] 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).