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 437

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
2640	18 March 1872	Edward Guiney Ellen Morrissey	Edward Guiney Ellen Morrissey 💍 1872/8807	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 24	Courtenay Do	6 years 6 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1627		March 1872	Rev. S.F. Lingerel
2641	18 March 1872	George Henry Cole Jane White	George Henry Cole Jane White 💍 1872/6143	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	27 24	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 months	In the Church of St. Luke	751		March 1872	Rev. S.F. Lingerel
2642	19 March 1872	Alfred Firmstone Emma Peager		Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	24 20	Christchurch Do	3 Days 1 Week	In the Church Pigeon Bay	949	Robert Peager, Father	March 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
2643	21 March 1872	George Thompson Mary Ann Barnard	George Thompson Mary Ann Baker 💍 1872/4863	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Servant	27 23	Christchurch Do	3 Days 2 years	In the church Ashburton			March 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
2644	23 March 1872	Jesse Seales Martha Jenkins	Jesse Seales Martha Jenkins 💍 1872/6458	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 23	Addington Do	5 months 1 Week	In the House	1618		March 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2645	23 March 1872	Charles Gamble Matilda James	Charles Gamble Matilda James 💍 1872/6125	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 19	Heathcote Valley Christchurch	12 years 1 year	In the Registration Office	1502	There is no person having Authority by Law to give Consent	March 1872	James Townsend, Registrar
2646	23 March 1872	Robert Alexander Maryark Gow	Robert Alexander Margaret Gow 💍 1872/6464	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 28	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	In the House	162		March 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2647	23 March 1872	William Newton Mary Ann Hancock	William Newton Mary Ann Jancock Strickland 💍 1872/6395 William Newton Mary Anne Collins 💍 1873/11284	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Milliner	22 27	Avonside Ferry Road	4 mth 4 mth	In the House	11593		March 1872	Rev. J. Habens

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).