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 449

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
151	3 August 1872	Gabriel Hodges Phoete Malony	Gabriel Hodges Phoebe Maloney 💍 1872/6152	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Cook	23 25	Christchurch Do	2 years 6 years	In the Church of St. Luke	991		3 August 1872	Rev. E. A. Lingard
152	5 August 1872	David Paton Isabella Kidd		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 21	Christchurch Do	1 week 2 months	In the House of Mr. Fraser	1514		7 August 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
153	6 August 1872	John Walker Elyzabeth Ann Martin	John Walker Elizabeth Ann Martin 💍 1872/5022	Bachelor Spinster	Laborur Servant	29 18	Christchurch Do	1 week 1 week	In the Church of St. John	1916	William Martin, Father	8 August 1872	Rev. C. Bailey
154	9 August 1872	Hamilton McGrath Eliza Atkinson	Hamilton McGrath Eliza Atkinson 💍 1872/6536	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 22	Courtenay Do	1 year 3 years	In the House of Mr. Russell	1716		9 August 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
155	9 August 1872	Thomas Foster Elyzabeth Parata		Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Servant	30 21	Christchurch Do	10 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St. Michael	1716		9 August 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
156	12 August 1872	David Curry Mary Murphy	David Curry Mary Murphy 💍 1872/6314	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer Dressmaker	36 26	Christchurch Do	30 years 20 years	In the House of Mr. Peacock Akaroa	1368		12 August 1872	Rev. A. Douglas
157	12 August 1872	Thomas Michael Bryan Jane Sutton	Thomas Michael Bryant Jane Suddens 💍 1872/6539	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	24 22	Christchurch Do	2 months 4 months	In the House of Mr. C. Fraser	1716		12 August 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
158	14 August 1872	James Macdonald Caroline Frances Swete	James Macdonald Gertrude Sophia Caroline Frances Swete 💍 1872/6155	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Inspector	58 37	Christchurch Do	3 Days 10 Days	In the Church of St. Luke	1513		14 August 1872	Rev. E. A. Lingard
159	14 August 1872	Michael Hogan Margareth Cokely	Michael Hogan Margaret Coakley 💍 1872/6353	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 23	Rolleston Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1581		14 August 1872	Rev. J. Eclyen

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).