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 441

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
2665	22 April 1872	Lewis Aline Martha McIllroy	Lewis William Duke Martha McIlroy 💍 1872/6215	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Christchurch Papaunui	4 months 2 months	In the Church of St. Michaels	72/1535		22 April 1872	Very Revd Dean Jacobs
2666	25 April 1872	Murdock Kennedy Elizabeth Hamilton Miles		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 25	North Selwyn Gendale Farm	4 years 3 weeks	In the House	72/1629		13 May 1872	Revb Gaser
2667	25 April 1872	Frederick Banks Isabella Marion Grace May Robinson	Frederick Banks Isabella Marion Grace May Robinson 💍 1872/6287	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	46 19	Cepaun do	2 years 2 years	In the Church	72/1555	There is no person having authority to give consent	25 April 1872	Revb Mondly
2668	27 April 1872	John Munns Grace Laurie	John Ferris Grace Laurie 💍 1872/6482	Widower Widow	Hotelkeeper Servant	49 21	Christchurch do	2 years 2 years	In the Protist Church	72/1626		27 April 1872	Rev C Gaser
2669	29 April 1872	Anthony Lay Mary Glynn	Anthony Fay Mary Glynn 💍 1872/6329	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 28	Christchurch do	45 days 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	72/		29 April 1872	Revd I Eouyen
2670	29 April 1872	Alexander Taylor Eliza Cusack	Alexander Taylor Eliza Cusack 💍 1872/8810	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	38 30	Christchurch do	3 months 3 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	72/220		29 April 1872	Revd M Ecuyen
2671	29 April 1872	William Karris Heurietta Ward	William Ward Henrietta Ward 💍 1872/6479	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	21 20	Addington do	9 months 9 months	In the House of Mr John Ward Addington	72/1625		29 April 1872	Revb Gaser
2672	29 April 1872	George Williams Susan Ann Foard	George Williams Emma Annie Foard 💍 1872/9392	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	20 25	Christchurch do	10 months 10 months	In the Church of St John	72/1829		29 April 1872	Rev E Bailey
2673	1 May 1872	Thomas Robert Callaghan Anna Tubman	Thomas Robert OCallaghan Anna Tubman 💍 1872/6113	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	Lincoln Road Papanui	2 weeks 9 months	In the Papanui Church	72/150		1 May 1872	Rev T Moore

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).