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 450

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
2730	14 August 1872	Thomas Jones Selina Jones	Thomas Jones Selina Jones 💍 1872/6545 Thomas Green Hannah Jones 💍 1872/4068	Widower Spinster	Maltster Servant	35 35	Christchurch Do	13 years 3 years	In the House of Mr C Fraser	741		14 August 1872	C Fraser
2731	16 August 1872	Ollaf Gunderson Mary Ann Tombs	Olaf Gunderson Mary Jane Tombs 💍 1872/6542	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Dressmaker	28 28	Christchurch Do	9 years 1 year	In the House of Rev C Fraser	742		16 August 1872	Rev. C Fraser
2732	16 August 1872	John Crowe Ellen Gough	John Crowe Ellen Gough 💍 1872/6356	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 30	Rolleston Christchurch	6 years 6 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	752		16 August 1872	Rev J. M. Leogue
2733	19 August 1872	John Finlayson Elyaboth Patton	John Finlayson Elizabeth Patton 💍 1872/6548	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 24	Christchurch Do	3 Days 4 Days	In the House of Rev C Fraser	746		19 August 1872	Rev. C Fraser
2734	19 August 1872	James Cooper Elyaboth McDermot		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	31 23	Springs[UNCLEAR] Lyttelton	2 years 8 years	In the House of Mr. Russelle	740		19 August 1872	Rev. C Fraser
2735	21 August 1872	Edmund Williams Mary Jane Deviston	Edmund Williams Mary Evans 💍 1872/6551 Richard Williams Mary Jane Opie 💍 1872/8162	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 24	Lake Do	1 year 2 weeks	In the House of Rev C Fraser	749		21 August 1872	Rev. C Fraser
2736	21 August 1872	Thomas O'Brien Sarah Kelly	Thomas O'Brien Sarah Kelly 💍 1872/6359	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 28	Christchurch Do	14 Days 4 Mth	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	753		21 August 1872	Rev J. M. Leogue
2737	21 August 1872	Richard Howard Elyabeth Cousins		Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	30 35	Christchurch Do	7 years 4 years	In the Church of St. Luke	751		5 September 1872	Rev E. A. Lingard
2738	22 August 1872	Henry Thomas Price Mary Matilda Johns	Henry Thomas Price Mary Matilda Johns 💍 1872/5594	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Servant	21 21	Christchurch Do	10 months 10 months	In the House of Rev Mr. Habens	754	there is no person having authority to give consent	6 September 1872	Rev Mr. 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).