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 440

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
2656	9 April 1872	William Willis Jane McCloy	William Willis Jane McCloy 💍 1872/7322	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 19	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	72/1906	there is no person having authority to give consent	9 April 1872	Rev. J.M. Ecuyer
2657	10 April 1872	George Pocock Harrick Robinson	George Pocock Harriet Robinson 💍 1872/8870	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 21	Christchurch Do	1 week 2 years	In the Church of St. John	72/186		10 April 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
2658	11 April 1872	George Pickering Barbara M. Nelson	George Pickering Dryden Barbara McNicol 💍 1872/6128	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	34 26	Ferry Road Christchurch	1 year 2 years	In the Registrars Office	72/1506		11 April 1872	B. Parkinson
2659	11 April 1872	Frank Simeon Howard Jane Grayne	Frank Simeon Howard Murray Jane Mayne 💍 1872/9398	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 18	Lincoln Road Widow Road	15 years 1 year	In the Church of St. John	72/1811	William Murray Grayne, Father	11 April 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
2660	11 April 1872	John they Free Harriet Norris	John Abey Fice Harriet Norris 💍 1872/6473	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	30 24	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 weeks	In the Mount Grey Scotch Church	72/1623		11 April 1872	Rev. E. Hasen
2661	15 April 1872	Jasper Pyne O'Callaghan Winifred Alice Baker	Jasper Pyne O'Callaghan Winifred Alice Baker 💍 1872/7793	Bachelor Spinster	Stock owner	32 19	Christchurch Lyttelton	4 years 15 years	In Lyttelton Church	72/2067	Emma Baker mother	15 April 1872	Rev. F. Knowles
2662	16 April 1872	Thomas Baylier Leah Astou	Thomas Bayliss Leah Aston 💍 1872/6476	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	24 22	Healthcote Valley Do	6 weeks 6 weeks	In the House of Mr. E. Hasen	72/1824		16 April 1872	Rev. E. Hasen
2663	18 April 1872	Herbert Edward Easy Caroline Priestly	Herbert Edward East Caroline Priestley Bradwell 💍 1872/9371	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	23 22	Christchurch Do	14 years 14 years	In the Church of St. John	72/1831		18 April 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
2664	21 April 1872	John Bennett Mary Ann Jessman	John Benett Mary Ann Jessemin 💍 1872/6212	Bachelor Widow	Sailor	42 45	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 1 week	In the Church of St. Michael Christchurch	72/1534		21 April 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).