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 439

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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

Farm Labourer
Servant

37
36

Christchurch
Do

5 years
Do

In the Roman Catholic Chapel

71/2/419

April 14 1872

Rev. J. M. Lecuyer

No	2640
Date of Notice	18 March 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Guiney	Ellen Morrissey
	💍 1872/8807
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farm Labourer	Servant
Age	37	36
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	5 years	Do
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel
Folio	71/2/419
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 14 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Lecuyer

2648

April 1 1872

Peter McGhie
Susannah Haboon

Peter McGill
Susannah Falloon
💍 1872/8798

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Servant

34
26

Christchurch
Do

5 years
Do

In the Roman Catholic Chapel

72/2/426.

April 1 1872

Rev. J. M. Lecuyer

No	2648
Date of Notice	April 1 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter McGhie	Susannah Haboon
BDM Match (78%)	Peter McGill	Susannah Falloon
	💍 1872/8798
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Servant
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	5 years	Do
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel
Folio	72/2/426.
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 1 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Lecuyer

2649

April 1 1872

William Roden
Ann Ladd

Bachelor
Spinster

Sailor
Servant

27
24

Christchurch
Do

1 week
Do

In the Church of St. Luke.

72/1/512

April 1 1872

Rev. J. B. Luiyand

No	2649
Date of Notice	April 1 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Roden	Ann Ladd
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sailor	Servant
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	1 week	Do
Marriage Place	In the Church of St. Luke.
Folio	72/1/512
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 1 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Luiyand

2650

April 2 1872

William M. Caulfield
Hannah Sullivan

William McAuliffe
Annah Sullivan
💍 1872/8801

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Servant

23
25

Christchurch
Do

2 months
Do

In the Roman Catholic Chapel

72/2/437

April 2 1872

Rev. J. M. Ecuyer

No	2650
Date of Notice	April 2 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William M. Caulfield	Hannah Sullivan
BDM Match (73%)	William McAuliffe	Annah Sullivan
	💍 1872/8801
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Servant
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	2 months	Do
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel
Folio	72/2/437
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 2 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Ecuyer

2651

April 2 1872

Hugh McLaughlin
Ellen Campbell

Hugh McLaughlin
Ellen Campbell
💍 1872/8804

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Servant

28
24

Christchurch
Do

6 months
Do

In the Roman Catholic Chapel

72/2/438

April 2 1872

Rev. J. M. Lecuyer

No	2651
Date of Notice	April 2 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh McLaughlin	Ellen Campbell
	💍 1872/8804
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Servant
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	6 months	Do
Marriage Place	In the Roman Catholic Chapel
Folio	72/2/438
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 2 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Lecuyer

2652

April 3 1872

Isaac Allen
Margaret Ann Smithson

Isaac Allen
Margaret Anne Smithson
💍 1872/8855

Bachelor
Spinster

Messenger

29
26

Christchurch
Durham Street

7 years
14 years

In the Wesleyan Church

72/2/439

April 3 1872

Rev. A. R. Fitchett

No	2652
Date of Notice	April 3 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Isaac Allen	Margaret Ann Smithson
BDM Match (98%)	Isaac Allen	Margaret Anne Smithson
	💍 1872/8855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Messenger
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Durham Street
Length of Residence	7 years	14 years
Marriage Place	In the Wesleyan Church
Folio	72/2/439
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 3 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. R. Fitchett

2653

April 5 1872

James Maine
Sarah Smith

James Brame
Sarah Smith
💍 1872/6467

James Capill
Jane Smith
💍 1872/9167

Bachelor
Spinster

Perfomer

21
22

Christchurch
Do

1 week
Do

In the House of Rev. C Halse

72/1/621

April 5 1872

Rev. C Haser

No	2653
Date of Notice	April 5 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Maine	Sarah Smith
BDM Match (82%)	James Brame	Sarah Smith
	💍 1872/6467
BDM Match (65%)	James Capill	Jane Smith
	💍 1872/9167
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Perfomer
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	1 week	Do
Marriage Place	In the House of Rev. C Halse
Folio	72/1/621
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 5 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. C Haser

2654

April 8 1872

William Rodger
Lucy M. Kay

William Rodger
Lucy McKay
💍 1872/6308

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Servant

29
23

Christchurch
Do

9 years
Do

In the House of Rev. A. F. Douglas

72/1/566

April 24 1872

Rev. A. F. Douglas

No	2654
Date of Notice	April 8 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Rodger	Lucy M. Kay
BDM Match (91%)	William Rodger	Lucy McKay
	💍 1872/6308
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Servant
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Do
Length of Residence	9 years	Do
Marriage Place	In the House of Rev. A. F. Douglas
Folio	72/1/566
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 24 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. F. Douglas

2655

April 9 1872

Thomas Ward
Hannah Ward

John Thomas Ward
Hannah Ward
💍 1872/8894

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
21

Templeton
Do

2 years
Do

In the Templeton Church

72/2/457.

April 30 1872

Rev. C. E. Paige

No	2655
Date of Notice	April 9 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Ward	Hannah Ward
BDM Match (84%)	John Thomas Ward	Hannah Ward
	💍 1872/8894
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Templeton	Do
Length of Residence	2 years	Do
Marriage Place	In the Templeton Church
Folio	72/2/457.
Consent
Date of Certificate	April 30 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. E. Paige

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).