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 432

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
2589	13 January 1872	James Kimber Isabella Wallace	James Kimber Isabella Margaret Wallace 💍 1872/6434	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 22	Kaiapoi Do	9 years 3 years	In the House of Mr C Fraser	72/116		13 January 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2590	13 January 1872	William Robert Gordon Marian Louisa Jones	William Robert Gordon Marian Louisa Jones 💍 1872/6278	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 22	Lyttelton Do	2 months 3 years	In the Church Lyttelton	72/1556		13 January 1872	Rev. J. G. Cholmondely
2591	15 January 1872	Charles Martelli Isabella Maym	Charles Martin Isabella Mayne 💍 1872/6275	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	32 18	Christchurch Do	10 years 6 years	In the Church of St Mark	72/1555	William Maym, father	15 January 1872	Rev. J. G. Cholmondely
2592	15 January 1872	Antonio Lorties Maria Spencer		Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 21	Christchurch Do	6 months 6 weeks	In the Church of St John			15 January 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
2593	17 January 1872	William Thomas Harper Barbara Jane Crosbie	William Thomas Harper Barbara Jane Crosbie 💍 1872/6281	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Servant	28 24	Cepawa Do	4 weeks 4 weeks	In the Church of St. Mark	72/1557		17 January 1872	Rev. J. G. Cholmondely
2594	19 January 1872	Frederick Taukard Alice Elizabeth Womack	Frederick Tankard Alice Elizabeth Warman 💍 1872/6185	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	24 25	Christchurch Do	4 years 3 years	In the Church of St Michael	72/1525		19 January 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacob
2595	19 January 1872	John William Miller Mary Sanderon	John Miller Mary Henderson 💍 1872/7061	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Servant	37 31	Christchurch Do	8 years 3 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	72/1599		19 January 1872	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
2596	22 January 1872	Dunham Alread Mary Ann Robinson		Widow	Nurse	47	Christchurch	22 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	72/242		8 February 1872	J. M. Ecuyer
2597	22 January 1872	John Pickering Calvert Sarah Vizer	John Pickering Calvert Sarah Vizer 💍 1872/6191	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Laundress	23 22	Christchurch Do	12 years 6 years	In the Church of St Michael	72/1527	Richard Jackman, father	22 January 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacob
2598	22 January 1872	Charlotte Child		Spinster		27	Riccarton	1 week		72/187		6 February 1872	Rev. C. Bowen
2599	22 January 1872	Henry Peach		Bachelor	Farmer	24	Do	14 years	Church
2599	22 January 1872	James Bounyman Alice Twiney		Widower Spinster	Sailor Servant	42 26	Springfield Road Christchurch	7 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	72/22		22 January 1872	Rev. J. M. Ecuyer

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).