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 454

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
2764	14 October 1872	William Newcome Mary Cassen	William Newcomb Mary Kessen 💍 1872/6176 William Geary Mary Cowan 💍 1872/3608 William Greenwood Mary Coyle 💍 1872/4695 William Newton Mary Anne Collins 💍 1873/11284	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 25	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St. Luke	72/1322		14 October 1872	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2765	15 October 1872	James Virtue Jane Bugg	James Vertice Jane Bugg 💍 1872/6578	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 20	Heathcote Ferry Road	6 years 1 1/2 years	In the House of Rev. G. Fraser	72/1658	William Bugg, Father	15 October 1872	Rev. G. Fraser
2766	18 October 1872	James Walls Sarah Longgan	James Walls Sarah Duggan 💍 1872/6332	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	32 26	Lincoln Shands Track	1 year 2 weeks	In the Wheatshed Hotel Shands Track	72/1574		18 October 1872	Rev. D.M. Chevrier
2767	24 October 1872	Eli Smart Mary Cogan	Eli Smart Mary Cogan 💍 1872/9413	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 27	Templeton Christchurch	8 years 6 months	In Riccarton Church	72/1636		24 October 1872	Rev. C. Bowen
2768	28 October 1872	Alfred William Joseph Darr Augusta Caroline Hart	Alfred William Ensor Augusta Carolina Hart 💍 1872/8867	Bachelor Spinster	Cattledealer	29 20	Christchurch Do	10 years 3 years	In Merivale Church	72/1679	[UNCLEAR] Hart, Father	28 October 1872	Rev. F. Knowles
2769	29 October 1872	William Ormandy Mary Jane Dumeau	William Ormandy Mary Jane Duncan 💍 1872/6371	Widower Spinster	Dealer Dressmaker	34 21	Christchurch Do	8 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	72/1554		29 October 1872	Rev. J.M. Ecuyer
2770	4 November 1872	Charles Childs Anna Kirby	Charles Childs Hannah Kirby 💍 1872/6374	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	21 24	Christchurch Do	6 weeks 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	72/1588		4 November 1872	Rev. J.M. Ecuyer
2771	5 November 1872	Henry Bromwich Betsy Prebble	Henry Bromwich Betsy Prebble 💍 1872/6251	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	43 37	Christchurch Do	10 years 10 years	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1857		21 November 1872	The Very Rev. H. Jacobs
2772	7 November 1872	William Worker Elizabeth Cook	William Walker Elizabeth Cook 💍 1872/6584 James Moulder Elizabeth Cook 💍 1872/5295	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 25	Selwyn Christchurch	6 years 3 Days	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	72/1660		7 November 1872	Rev. C. Fraser

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).