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 436

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2631	4 March 1872	Felix Benson Mary Jones	Felix Benson Mary Jones 💍 1872/6305	Widower Spinster	Mason Servant	33 28	Christchurch Apaura	1 year 9 months	In the Scotch Church	229/1565	7 March 1872	Rev. A.F. Douglas
2632	9 March 1872	Samuel Nelson Emma Ellen	Samuel Nelson Emma Eliza Eayrs 💍 1872/6392	Bachelor	Messenger at Bank	30 21	Christchurch	8 years 11 years	In the House of Mr. Rogers	229/1594	9 March 1872	Rev. J Habens
2633	11 March 1872	Henry Gizzarx Margaret Curry	Henry Tizzard Margaret Curry 💍 1872/6302	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	34 22	Christchurch	4 Days 4 Days	In the House of Mr. Peacock	2603	April 1872	Rev. W.H. Cooper
2634	11 March 1872	Thomas Hall Janeh Currie	Thomas Kent Janet Currie 💍 1872/9326	Widower Widow	Cabinet Maker	44 34	Christchurch	22 years	In the Avonside Church	2605
2635	11 March 1872	William Henry Frazer Henrietta Burleigh	William Henry Strange Henrietta Burleigh 💍 1872/6203	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 22	Tapaui Christchurch	8 years 1 year	In the Church of St. Michaels	1531	11 March 1872	Rev. Rob. Brown [UNCLEAR]
2636	14 March 1872	Frederick Hyde Sarah Ford	Frederick Hydes Sarah Good 💍 1872/6461 Frederick Thorn Sarah Jones 💍 1872/6047	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 25	Templeton [UNCLEAR]	1 year 1 year	In the House of R.C Harer	241/619	21 March 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2637	15 March 1872	John Frederick William de Ridder Evangelin Poplia Slater	John Frederick William De Ridder Evangeline Sophia Slater 💍 1872/6209	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	29 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 7 years	In the Church of St. Michaels	1533	March 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacob
2638	March 1872	Henry Froud Hannah Rich		Bachelor Spinster	Barman Cook	24 22	Christchurch	2 years 12 years	In the Church of St. John		March 1872	Rev. E.A. Bailey
2639	March 1872	William Blackmore Sarah King	William Brightmore Sarah King 💍 1872/6455	Widower Widow	Bricklayer	50 46	Christchurch	12 years 1 year	In the House of R.C Harer	229/619	March 1872	Rev. C. Fraser

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).